The Nordic Six
by Pixel Mouse
Summary: Major volcanic activity causes a new island and baby nation to form. When Iceland takes in the nation as his own baby brother, he faces the struggles of protecting his brother from other nations as well as being a good sibling and role model. Not to worry though. His fellow Nordics will always be there to help.
1. Volcanoes and Islands

**Author's Note: This is one of my first fanfics, so please forgive me for making any mistakes while I learn to use the site. Please note that none of the characters (exlcuding the new nation) are mine. Thanks a million for visiting my story. I hope you enjoy it! **

**Update: also, the new nation is not Surtsey, although Surtsey is briefly mentioned once or twice. Just wanted to clear up some confusion. :)**

"So there I was, just me on a tiny long-boat, in the middle of this storm where the waves were literally taller than this house," Denmark said enthusiastically, stretching one hand up for emphasis. "And then _BOOM!"_ Iceland jumped. "The boat capsized."

"Mmhmm," Iceland mumbled, not really paying attention to Denmark's viking story. He had almost gotten to sleep that time, too. _Sleep._ That was all he wanted. When he fell asleep, he could happily forget that he felt like crap. There was a lot of volcanic activity occurring in Iceland, and it was not doing good things for his health. Of course, he was no stranger to volcanic eruptions. It meant weeks of fevers, chills, coughing, and pain_, _not to mention the dozens of nations that came complaining to him about how the ash was giving _them_ problems. But this? This was something he would have never thought possible. He knew he was a young nation compared to many of the others, but even they had seen nothing like this. The fault lines were _exploding!_ Iceland was pretty much bedridden most days these past two weeks, as were some other nations located along the fault lines, even the ones who normally didn't have any volcanic activity.

Most of it seemed to be centered in Iceland, or more precisely the ocean surrounding Iceland though. If the oceans had secret personifications like the nations did, he felt bad for them. Seeing as that just singular volcanoes had taken a hit at Iceland's health in the past, the Nordic's unanimously decided that they needed to help Iceland with-how many volcanoes were going off? They had lost track. Except the nordics weren't exactly _helping… at all._

"Stop waking him up," Norway said blatantly from where he sat reading by the window, although he didn't even look up at the two. Denmark, realizing he didn't have a tie on for Norway to strangle him with, decided it was safe to continue talking.

"Naw, Icey loves hearing about the good 'ol viking days, don't you Ice?" Iceland just groaned and pulled the covers over his head.

"Told you," Norway said.

Denmark disregarded the comment and continued talking. "So I was stuck swimming in the middle of the ocean-" He was suddenly interrupted yet again by Sweden clearing his throat. Even without taking his head out from under the covers, Iceland could practically see the glare Denmark was receiving, telling him to leave. He heard a sigh and the wooden floorboards creak as Denmark gave in and left.

_Thank you, _Iceland thought to himself. Before, he'd felt so awkward with the four other nordics just _watching_ him as he tried to fall asleep. At this point though, he was past caring. He closed his eyes and let himself fall asleep.

* * *

"Iceland!" Iceland awoke with a start, gasping, looking up at four sets of worried eyes. Even Denmark's eyes had lost their mischievous gleam.

"What's wrong?" he asked, then winced. His throat burned.

"What's wrong? Just look at you." Norway said, a rare hint of concern tinging his words...or was that fear.

Iceland sat up slowly- with the help of Finland and Sweden, and tried standing up.

"What do you think you're doing?" Norway asked, his voice halfway between condescending and completely monotone.

Iceland tried speaking again, but his voice got caught in his throat. He just motioned towards the mirror.

Norway shook his head. "Stay there." He went over and turned it so that Iceland could see himself. He cringed. Aside from his cheeks and eyes, which looked more like burning coals than flesh, he was stark white. That was only accented by his silvery hair, which was now plastered to his face with sweat.

Iceland just groaned at flopped back down onto the pillows.

"Why'd ya wake me up?" Iceland managed to cough.

"We were worried about you," Finland said, trying not to panic.

" 'Y took a t'rn f'r the w'rst," Sweden said, glaring at Iceland with a look that only the other nordics would recognize as concern.

"I'm fi-" Iceland's sentence dissolved into a fit of coughing in which Denmark ran over to help Iceland sit up. Iceland made a note to immediately forgive him for all of his stupid viking stories.

Norway came over and laid a hand on Iceland's forehead. Iceland closed his eyes, enjoying the coldness of his hand in the split second before Norway snapped his hand back, shaking it for a moment as if in pain.

"Geez. You're burning lillebror."

"Obviously," Iceland muttered under his breath, wriggling free of Denmarks hold and back underneath the blankets, which were immediately ripped off of him by one of the nordics. He didn't bother looking to see which one.

" 'Y need 't cool off." Sweden. It was sweden.

"But it's _cold _without them!"

"Sorry Iceland," Finland chirped genuinely, giving him an apologetic smile. Iceland sighed, closing his eyes. It was hard to stay mad at someone like Finland. Took too much energy too.

" 'll go g't s'm m'dcine," Sweden muttered, heading downstairs to rumage around until he found something that would help.

" Can we turn the news on?" Iceland mumbled, already trying to fall back into the blissful land of ignorant sleep. Half the TV stations were covering this freakish volcanic activity. Hopefully they could give him some insight as to what was going on and more importantly when it would END!

"Sure thing Ice," Denmark chimed, reverting back to his old self, setting off towards the TV down the hall and leaving Iceland with Norway and Finland.

"Need anything else?" Finland asked smiling, not one-hundred percent sure what to do with himself. Iceland grunted in response.

"Means no," Norway said in answer to Finland's befuddled expression.

"Oh. Okay."

Iceland sighed, thankful for the long overdue silence, and closed his eyes. _Finally._

"Hey Ice!" Denmark hollered from down the hall. He groaned inwardly and didn't even have to look to know that Norway was shooting a glare down the hall. "TV is all the way down here! Want me to move it into your room?"

"Agh. Forget it." He leaned over and switched on the radio on the alarm clock instead, but he was asleep again before the announcer even got five words out.

* * *

"Iceland! C'mon bro! Ya gotta get up!" Denmark. Iceland blinked and pulled himself into a sitting position.

"This again?" he groaned drowsily.

"Iceland?" Norway asked. Iceland stared up at him in shock. His voice, his face, everything about him was saturated with worry.

"What?" Iceland bolted up, ignoring his complaining muscles.

"You're okay?" Norway asked.

Iceland nodded. He was fine...well….as fine as he could be with the recent events. "Why? What happened?" All of the nordics surrounding him looked away. Norway glancing to a spot slightly above his head, Denmark looking utterly stressed out (which sounded like an oxymoron to Iceland), Sweden suddenly finding his boots really interesting, and Finland staring out the increasingly ash-stained air outside the window. "Guys. C'mon. What- what happened."

" 'S w'ts gonna h'ppen," Sweden said, not removing his eyes from his shoes. Iceland raised an eyebrow.

"Honestly guys, I'm feeling a little bit better. I think I can actually get up," Iceland said, swinging his feet over the side of the bed so that he could stand.

"Oh no you don't," Norway scolded, and several pairs of hands reached out to push him back down.

"What's going on?" Iceland asked again, pretty irritated at this point if he were to be honest with himself. Sure, the nordics were a fairly tight-knit family, but they had never been… _motherly_ so to speak. Well, maybe he could picture Finland taking over the role of an overprotective parent with a sick kid, but Sweden and Norway had the same sort of nonchalant attitude that didn't fit with what he was seeing now (even if Norway did make a fuss over the whole big brother deal) Denmark was too rambunctious to be pictured as the caretaker type.

"Ah...not sure how to break this to you Iceland," Finland said, laughing humorlessly and running a hand through his hair- both nervous habits of his. He looked around for help from his fellow nordics.

Denmark to the rescue. " The news people-"

"Anchors?" Norway interjected, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah whatever, well they said that all indications point to some major volcanic and tectonic plate activity any time now."

Iceland stifled a laugh. "What's new?" This had been going on for weeks now. Tell him something he didn't know.

" Icel'nd, 's gonna be bad," Sweden said, finally making eye contact. Iceland was shocked. This might be the first time Sweden wasn't wearing his typical unchanging stern face. He looked...sad. No, that wasn't the word. He looked like he was pitying Iceland. Pity. The word turned sour in Iceland's mind. He couldn't deny that he had depended on and needed the Nordics these past few weeks, but he didn't want to be the source of pity now… or _ever_ really. And yet...the nordics' reactions..._Sweden_ displaying emotion _visibly?_Now _that_ scared him.

"_How_ bad?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at them.

"Ah," Denmark ran a hand through his own hair, making his hat fall off-center and his hair stick up even more, if that was even possible. "It'll be, and I quote 'twenty-one times more powerful than anything else in recorded history'"

Iceland closed his eyes and leaned back against the headboard, disregarding the angle it bent his neck to.

"Really?"

"Really."

"This isn't some mean joke?"

"Sorry Ice."

Then an even more horrifying thought occurred to Iceland. "Norway?"

"Yes?"

"This...whatever it is...it isn't going to you know..._kill_ me is it?"

Norway's eyes widened at his words. "No...it- it shouldn't at least...gosh you're too young for this."

Iceland didn't think he was supposed to hear the last part. "Shouldn't?" he laughed, although he found no humor in his words. All he could picture was solid Icelandic ground cracking into plates and drifting apart. "I was looking for something a little more solid than tha- _GAH!"_

Iceland curled up into a ball. Something was stabbing him, carving it's way through him from the inside out. He couldn't even pinpoint where, it was _everywhere._ He was either burning or freezing to death- he couldn't tell which one, but it was certainly one of the two extremes...or both maybe. Did it even matter? What was happening? No volcanic eruption could be this bad. It wasn't possible, it couldn't be. He had his eyes squeezed shut, unwilling to open them for all eternity. Even if he did- he knew he wouldn't be able to see anything. Colors- little flecks and splatters of red and black and green exploded behind his eyelids, and something similar was happening in his head. That was, if his brain wasn't liquid already. Only the most generous soul could call this a migraine. He was sure he was screaming right now- how could he not be? He couldn't hear anything though- only muffled 'Icelands' from the nordics who may as well be a million worlds apart.

And then finally, blissful unconsciousness swallowed all of the pain.

* * *

" 'S b'n talk'ng 'n 'is sleep 'n mov'ng around a lot." This was the first sentence Iceland was able to make any sense of. Everything else sounded like jumbled up gibberish.

"Iceland?" Can you hear me?" called Finlands voice, a couple feet away by the sound of it.

Iceland grunted in response. He didn't have the energy to get up yet, which didn't really make sense since, judging by the soreness of his muscles, he had been asleep for quite a while.

"Hey guys, he's up," Finland called quietly to the others. Several pairs of footsteps padded over.

"Iceland?" That voice definitely belonged to Norway. "You think you can open your eyes yet?"

Iceland blinked, the Nordics slowly coming into focus. They were all looking down on him with worried expressions. At least they had the sense to keep him in his own house and not bring him to the hospital. There was nothing they could have done at the hospital anyway.

"Yeah?" he replied in a scratchy voice. He cleared his throat.

A huge grin broke across Denmark's face. "He lives!" he said in a joking voice. Norway shoved him so that he stumbled back a few steps. Nobody needed a reminder that this could have been a close call for Iceland.

Norway sat down by Iceland's feet. "How are you feeling?"

Iceland pushed himself up and sat cross-legged on the bed. It actually didn't take as much energy as he thought. "Actually, pretty okay." He felt better than he had since this whole fiasco started. He flexed his muscles, testing them. Sure, they were a little sore, but that was to be expected. His people were still recovering from the effects of the volcanoes themselves. "Is it over?"

Norway smirked slightly. "For the most part. There are still some aftershocks to come, but they're not too bad."

"Okay." He released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Okay...What _was_ that?"

Norway's ghost of a grin morphed into a rare full-blown smile.

"A few hundred miles off your southern coast, a new island popped up."

Iceland sat there gaping for a moment. "A- what?"

"An island."

"But-I-that should have taken millions of years to happen. I didn't even know the fault lines-" Iceland sputtered. By all accounts, this should be impossible. Surtsey was an exception, but even Surtsey hadn't been quite so extreme. This was s

Denmark laughed. "There's a first time for everything."

"Still," Norway said, staring out at nothing in particular, "It's highly irregular…"

"That's an understatement," Iceland remarked under his breath.

"Aww, lighten up Norge, everyone's okay."

"Mph," Norway answered. He wasn't the type to give up on a question he was still curious about.

"So if this is some unrelated island, why was _I_ affected"

" 'Twas close by. 'T set off the' icel'nd'c v'lc'noes."

"Oh," Iceland muttered, silently berating himself for not thinking of that obvious answer. Then again, he just woke up after being asleep for who knows how long. Days if he had to guess. It was a wonder he was even thinking this clearly.

"Joo. Even we felt that to some extent," Finland said, smiling of course.

"So, this island," what's up with it?" Iceland asked.

Norway shrugged. "Not much. It's a really small pile of volcanic rock and ash. It'll keep growing though. Iceland nodded. He wanted to see it.

* * *

It had been two weeks. The Nordics had insisted on staying with Iceland until he made a full recovery, which mind you, he had made about a week ago. He could take care of himself, and he let them know again and again _and again._ Nevertheless, they were still there, insisting that he still needed to rest. Whatever. Iceland had been cooped up in that house of his for a month and was slowly descending towards insanity. He needed to leave. It didn't matter that he had to sneak out of his own house at the crack of dawn, as long as he could leave. The local area, where he normally went to go food shopping, sounded unappealing. He needed to go somewhere else. He knew where. Norway might just kill him if found out...or have a heart attack, but he knew. It wasn't hard to find a ride over. It's not like Iceland had any shortage of fishing boats.

Norway wasn't kidding. It was a slab of volcanic rock with nothing on it. What exactly was he expecting though? This thing had just risen up from the depths of the upper mantle a few weeks ago. The air still smelled like flames and rotting eggs. If he were a human, he probably wouldn't even be able to come. The captain of the fishing boat had gotten as close as he could (with a hefty bribe Iceland might add), but wouldn't get too close. Iceland had to row the rest of the way. Well, at the very least, that was at least one thing Norway would have been proud of: rowing like a true viking… sort of… not that he cared. His white boots were soon deep in and covered with _something._ Ash? Wet ash? No, he couldn't tell, but it was definitely something.

The entire island was covered in whatever this stuff was and rock. It was small for an island. He could see every inch of the coast from no matter where he stood, but barely. He expected to see a volcano or something. The island was supposed to be like hawaii: growing via volcanic eruptions. But it was all flat. Most of this place was underwater though, so the volcano was probably there.

"Well," Iceland muttered to himself, taking one last glance around the new island, "this has been a waste of time." The stores next to his home may have ended up being more exciting after all. If he were to have any hope of getting home before the Nordics called the authorities, which was likely already being that Norway had grown steadily more overprotective of his little brother as the days went on, he should head back now. Iceland heaved a sigh, utterly disappointed, and started the short walk back to the little boat he had rowed from the fishing boat to the island. He probably should have just listened to the Nordics to begin with.

He suddenly gasped and tripped over something, face-planting in the ashy stuff. A muffled squeak-like cry emanated from the ground behind his feet.

"Wha-?" Iceland looked back at where he had tripped. The face of a small child had suddenly popped out of the soaking wet ash-material. What in the world-?

_Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, _Iceland thought desperately. Just when it looked like the child had settled down and granted Iceland his wish, he burst out in tears, wailing. Well this was just _perfect__, _wasn't it?

Iceland scooped the child up in his arms, not quite sure how to hold him.

"Shh. Ahh...it's okay.." he said, awkwardly patting the child on the back. It did little to calm the kid down though. Iceland looked around frantically for the kid's parents, but the whole place was desolate. Of course it was, he had already been from coast to coast about three times now...but how on earth did this kid get- oh no. It- he...he couldn't be one of them, could he? What other explanation could there be? Iceland held the kid out in front of him and studied him, as if there would be a big sign reading '_NATION' _scrawled across his forehead. The child opened his mouth to suck in another breath: fuel for it's screams, but ended up choking on the air, laden with debris. It started coughing then, opening it's eyes for the first time. They were violet spheres, gazing at Iceland intently. Well that settled it. Humans didn't have violet eyes.

Iceland looked around the island once more. Well it's not like he could leave the kid here, now could he? Just imagine how Norway would react though…

The trip back home gave Iceland his first chance to really get a good look at the kid. He was really little. He wasn't an infant, but was still younger than America was when Finland and Sweden first stumbled across him. He looked about old enough to crawl well, and possibly make failed attempts at walking, and also to speak, but only complete baby gibberish. Months old in how many days? Nations were weird. Any other details were hidden by a thick layer of wet ash that wouldn't come off no matter what Iceland did, although he was pretty sure that the kid's hair was blond. How could a slab of rock off of the Icelandic coast even have a personification? There were many tiny sandbar-like islands across the world without personifications. Then again, Sealand's existence proved to the world that almost anything could have a personification. Both Iceland and the kid were filthy by now: yet another thing to explain later. The wind nipped at his nose. He didn't mind much, but he made sure to tuck the child under his coat. The poor thing had probably been through enough without having pneumonia to top it all off.

* * *

Iceland slipped into his house, trying to avoid attention. He didn't know exactly what he was going to do. This wasn't the sort of thing that he could keep as a secret. But it could stay a secret for a _few_ more hours, couldn't it?

"Where do you think you're going?" Iceland spun around, arms hiding the little kid who had fallen asleep underneath his coat.

"Upstairs." he said, a bit too fast. If Norway noticed, he didn't say anything.

"Is that ash all over your clothes? What on earth did you do?"

"I fell. There's a lot of ash on the ground right now. Do you-"

"You went to the island didn't you?"

How!? How did he know? "No." The kid suddenly blinked his eyes awake, cooing softly, still a bit drowsy.

"What was that?" Norway asked sharply. He didn't even give Iceland a chance to answer before walking over to a place where the new nation wasn't hidden from view and looking at the kid for himself.

"Iceland? Care to explain?" It wasn't a question.

"Look. I went to the island. It had a personification. I couldn't leave him there. Bye." he turned around and walked in the direction of the stairs without waiting for a reply.

"Then what?"

Iceland stopped. "What do you mean?"

"Well, what did you plan on doing? Raising him yourself?"

Iceland looked down at the drowsy kid in his arms. "I...I guess so-"

Norway shook his head. "Iceland. Let me or one of the other Nordics take care of him."

"Why?" Iceland narrowed his eyes. Was Norway implying that he wasn't able to.

"Iceland. You're seventeen."

Iceland made a sound in the back of his throat. "You were too, when you found me...more or less."

Norway waved off his comment as if it were irrelevant, which it was _not._

"Iceland, you went through school centuries ago, yes, but you'll have to teach him and feed him. Other countries with strong military's will try to take him over."

Iceland narrowed his eyes. All of this was only making his resolve stronger. "I'll do it."

"Iceland, don't be hero. Don't do this just to prove a point. We don't see you as a little kid." This was probably the most Iceland had heard Norway talk in one day ever, but he didn't care much at that time. Iceland just looked at the little bundle in his arms. No. This was his little brother. He disregarded Norway's comment and continued upstairs.

"Iceland. Come back here," he called.

"No. I'm going to clean him up," he said, taking the child up to the bathroom. "We can talk later."

Norway studied the two of them for a minute. Iceland wasn't just doing this to spite the rest of them, was he? "Fine," he muttered. Iceland raised his eyebrows. "Fine. But this is our little brother too now," Norway continued, speaking for the rest of the Nordics. "Don't expect us to stay out of this." Aka: We'll be watching you. He still wasn't completely convinced.

Iceland just nodded and went to go clean the ash off of the new nation, all the while thinking '_What did I just get myself into.'_

**Author's Note: I hope you liked chapter one! Chapter two will hopefully be updated within the week. Reviews are very much appreciated, as is criticism so long as it is constructive. Thanks again!**


	2. Names

**Author's Note: Alright 'yall! Here's chapter two for you. :) Like always, none of the hetalia characters (excluding the new island) belong to me. I hope you enjoy it!**

"Why don't you give him to me?" Norway asked.

"What? No, are you crazy?" Iceland asked.

Norway rolled his eyes. "I meant let me _hold _him so you can clean _yourself_ up. Relax."

"Oh." Iceland let out a breath, but still stared at Norway, measuring how capable he was of watching the new nation.

"Iceland. I raised you. I think I can manage watching a little kid for fifteen minutes."

"Fine, fine," he replied before reluctantly handing the new nation over. The little guy had just been cleaned up and put into clothes that didn't look like they were more ash than fabric. Iceland stood there, unmoving for a moment.

"Well?" Norway raised an eyebrow. Iceland wondered what Norway was planning exactly. Norway sighed, realizing that Iceland wouldn't move until he had some confirmation that things would be alright.

"Look Iceland. You're still covered in ash, and you smell like sulfur. It'll take you fifteen minutes to clean up. Is that so big a deal?"

"Fine," Iceland muttered, starting to turn and walk up the stairs. "Just don't tell the others yet, okay?"

"Dn't tell 's wh't?" The three remaining Nordics stood in the doorway opposite Iceland. Oh gosh. _Really?_ Was this _really_ happening? Dealing with Norway's reaction had been bad enough. Now the rest of them. Iceland considered bolting away, but Norway shot him a look, threatening against it and prompting him to explain.

"_You_ can explain. I'm going to go take a shower." Iceland only got another two steps before Norway dragged Iceland back down to the first floor.

"You want to be a good brother to this kid? Start by explaining."

"Kid?" Finland's eyes grew wide as he walked around Norway until the baby came into view. He squealed. _Squealed._ Iceland felt like smiling, but the smile never made it to his face.

"Where'd you find him?" Denmark asked, laughing. "He looks like you." Iceland did smile then...sort of. The new nation did look a lot like him. He had Iceland's vivid violet eyes and pale skin, and his hair was blond too. It was more of a yellow-blond though: more yellow than his own hair, but still much paler than Finland's or England's.

"That new island. He was buried in ash." Iceland replied.

"Aww, and you're taking care of him Norway?" Finland asked, a smile that was even bigger than normal plastered to his face. Iceland stiffened.

"No. Iceland expressed an interest in doing so."

Three pairs of wide eyes looked his way. Iceland half expected Denmark to start laughing. But no, he actually looked...thoughtful. Iceland sometimes forgot that Denmark wasn't the loud person who never took anything seriously that he often came across as. When he calmed down, he could be quite caring and inquisitive. He just kept looking from the little kid back to Iceland, thinking. Sweden's expression hadn't changed much...at all.

Finland was the first to speak. "That's great Iceland! You'll be a great big brother!" His smile stretched from there to the next town over, although it was no secret that Finland was a bit jealous of Iceland having _another_ sibling while he still had none. Nevertheless, he was genuinely happy for him.

" "Y sh'r 'bout th's?" Sweden said, looking at Iceland in what appeared to be a glare but wasn't intended to be.

"Yeah Icey, you really sure about this?" Denmark said, still looking back and forth between him and the baby.

"Yes," Iceland said plainly.

Denmark nodded, although he still looked a bit unsure. Sweden… well it was hard to tell what he was thinking. Either way, he wasn't objecting.

"What's his name?" Finland asked. "Or her." He had somehow ended up holding the little nation, although Iceland didn't remember Norway ever handing him over.

Iceland opened up his mouth to reply, only to realize that he didn't have an answer. Names seemed like they should be the most obvious thing, but now he saw that they really weren't. " It's a him. Umm…name… " Iceland thought.

"Choose wisely," Norway smirked. "You don't get to change it."

That's right; it was Iceland's job to choose a name wasn't it? Nobody could go around calling the island 'baby, kid, child, or new nation' much longer. If he picked a bad one, the poor kid would be stuck with it for centuries, millenniums even .

His confusion must have shown, because Norway just laughed quietly and pushed Iceland towards the stairs saying "Go. Think about it."

* * *

For the record, it had taken a lot longer than fifteen minutes to get all of that ash out of Iceland's hair: _forty-five_ minutes to be exact. That ashy stuff dried, and it stuck like glue when it did. At least Iceland had managed to wash it out of the _kid's_ hair before it all dried… somehow.

"Hey Icey, decided on a name yet?" Denmark asked when Iceland came back downstairs. Iceland nearly had a heart attack when he saw that _Denmark_ was the one holding the new nation. Agh! Iceland had entrusted _Norway_ to watch him. He had to step back and remind himself that Denmark was more capable of things that people gave him credit for. After all, he _did_ raise Iceland for a little while there, and helped him tremendously with the first incidents in the Cod Wars.

"Ahh, not exactly," Iceland said, feeling a bit incompetent in the naming portion of all this. The others probably had been tossing names back and forth the entire time he was trying to clean the ash out of his hair and clothes.

" 'Ny ideas y't?"

Iceland shrugged. "I don't know. How do most nations get named?"

" 'Y g't y'r name fr'm all the snow 'n ice 'n the m'ntains 'n fjords."

Iceland raised an eyebrow at the Swede. "I always thought you vikings named me Iceland to prevent people from taking over even though there wasn't a ton of Ice, and Greenland to redirect people there."

Norway shook his head. "That urban legend? Honestly Iceland, you ought to know more about your own history."

"Well plenty of people are told that," Iceland muttered.

"And plenty of Americans think that their country was named after the first person to sail there from the east. That doesn't make it true though"

" '_W_ were f'rst," Sweden said, sounding slightly irritated with not getting credit.

"So… how _did _America get his name?"

"A narcissistic mapmaker made a map of the Americas and decided to write his name on it. It stuck."

Iceland wrinkled his nose. "Really?"

"Really."

Well this conversation was going nowhere. Iceland wasn't about to let some stuck-up mapmaker name his brother, and _he_ was the first one to find it, so it's not like he could name it after himself. Two Iceland's could get confusing quickly. Heck, he had a hard enough time differentiating Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Australia when he was a kid.

"Any ideas guys?" he asked.

Finland scrunched up his face in concentration. "Hmm, well what's 'island' in Icelandic?"

"Eyjan," Iceland said in a monotone. Naming a country 'island'? Wasn't that a bit… plain?

"Or lava or volcano or ash," Finland went on.

"Hraun, eldfell, and aska," Iceland translated, sighing. None of these would work well for a name.

"Oh! What's tectonic plate in Icelandic?" Even Sweden gave Finland a look with that suggestion.

Iceland yawned.

Norway suddenly stood up and stretched. "It's late. Why don't you sleep on it Iceland? We'll all talk in the morning." Norway's plans were always final: nonnegotiable.

"Alright." Iceland walked over to where Denmark was holding the new nation. Both were slowly drifting off to sleep, and he managed to take the small nation out of the Dane's arms without him noticing.

Iceland walked up the stairs slowly, catching little snippets and words a conversation the Nordics' had just started up. So much for going to sleep.

" '_e's feel'n bett'r - any need 't stay?"_

" _-he ready - raise - nation?"_

" _-stay to watch - in case-"_

" _why does he even -"_

" _joo - should name him-"_

Iceland groaned inwardly. They were talking about _his_ decisions in _his _life in _his_ house, all within his hearing range. Mind their own business! On a normal day, he would go down and speak in his own defense, but today had been a long day. A long _long_ day. He was done. Besides, he had found a long time ago that the best way to avoid trouble with the Nordics was to just stay out of it all.

He went into his room and set the little nation down on the bed, who was already fast asleep. Iceland then turned around to find some clothes to sleep in. When he looked back towards the bed, little drowsy violet eyes were watching his trek around the room.

Iceland wordlessly walked over and sat down beside him, pulling him up to his chest and ruffling his blond hair. The little guy had mostly straight hair like the rest of the Nordics, but with a cowlick. It wasn't nearly as pronounced as America's, but it was there alright.

"Bah!" he gurgled happily, before sticking the top of his entire fist in his mouth and sucking on it.

Iceland chucked softly. Even if the new little nation couldn't understand what he was saying, Iceland felt awkward and out of place just sitting here with the nation, saying nothing, which was weird since he didn't really speak much.

Before he even knew what he doing, Iceland found himself telling the young nation a story. It was one of the ones that Norway and even Denmark when he babysat him used to tell. It was all about vikings and sailing and adventure, discovery, capsized boats and harsh storms, then finally finding safety and dry land. He told him about what life on the viking boats was like (although he was too young to remember most of it himself), about his vikings traveling to new lands and fighting off threats to save those who lived there. Even after the little nation's eyes were closed and his breathing had evened out, Iceland continued to talk, thinking that maybe his stories would show up in the little guy's dreams. He moved from one story to the next, until eventually he ran out of local stories and had to move on to the English fairy tales of dragons and hidden castles and spinning wheels. By now, a huge sloppy grin had slipped onto Iceland's normally placid face.

A shadow shifted in the light coming from the doorway. Iceland turned around and gasped.

"Norway. How long have you been standing there?"

"A while actually."

"Oh." He felt his cheeks heat up. Hopefully the dark room would hide it. Iceland slid the sleeping nation off of his chest and placed him underneath the blankets.

"You really care about him, don't you?"

Iceland looked over at Norway in a sort of half-glare. "Did you think I didn't?"

"No." A person of few words, Norway must have seen no need to elaborate any further than this.

"Don't deny it. I heard you guys talking down there."

Norway sighed, looking anxious for the first time since Iceland was sick. "It's not that… we just thought that maybe you wanted to look after him so much just to prove you aren't a kid once and for all."

"Well I don't," Iceland sneered. He felt the need to remind him that no matter what he looked like, he was actually centuries old. He was quite capable of taking care of the nation.

"I know. I see that. You might have trouble convincing the others. Well, not Finland, but you've convinced me. You tend to remain neutral on most things, but when you care about something, you care a lot. You've showed me that this is one of them. I'll stand by you on this one."

"Uhh...thanks… I guess." Iceland shifted uncomfortably. This was always how it worked with Norway. He wished that he would show a little emotion ever now and then, but on the rare occasions he finally did, it felt so _awkward_. "Well… goodnight." Iceland said, giving Norway the hint he needed to leave. He didn't get it though. That or he disregarded it.

"What did you call him a minute ago?"

"Hmm?" Iceland raised an eyebrow.

"You called him something just a moment ago. Did you decide on a name, lilebror?"

"Well," Iceland said, embarrassed for reasons he didn't understand, "You know how you said America was named after a mapmaker?"

"Yeah?" Norway didn't quite see where his brother was going with this.

"Well, if I were to name him after a _person_ like a lot of the other nations are, I thought it would be Wegener."

"Alfred Wegener?"

"Right. Well, Alfred's already taken, but just Wegener works. I mean, Wegener contributed the most to the theory of plate tectonics, which is this guy's-" Iceland nodded to the sleeping nation "defining characteristic at this point, so-" Iceland stopped when he realized that he was rambling.

"Wegener," Norway tested out the name and tilted his head. "I like it," he said, nodding. There was another long pause before Norway realized he was overstaying his welcome.n"Well, I should head to sleep now. Goodnight Iceland." He turned and headed out of the room, only to reappear seconds later. "Goodnight Wegener."

**Author's Note: Well I hope you enjoyed chapter two! I'm sorry if any of the Icelandic translations were off; I had to use an online translator. Thank you to everyone who has read, favorited, and followed. Also a special thanks to ****PianoKeys4****, and AurorMist, and a guest for the nice and helpful reviews! Reviews are greatly appreciated and criticism is welcome, but please keep it constructive! If you choose to leave a review, please let me know in it if you have any specific requests for future chapters. I'm not 100% sure what will happen in the next chapter, but it may involve Iceland in his quest to convince the nordics that he wants to/can take care of Wegener. One way or another, chapter 3 should be up within the next few days. Thanks a million for reading!**


	3. Crying

**Author's Note: Here is chapter three! As usual, no characters but Wegener belong to that this one is so short (I rushed to get this one up for everyone to read) Thanks for reading! I hope you like it. :)**

For such a small kid, Wegener sure had a set of lungs on him. He woke up screaming only three hours after falling asleep. Iceland winced, having had his ear not five inches from the little nation. It took all of his effort to pull himself up in bed, and pull Wegener up against his chest as well. He hummed and rocked the little kid (not that it was helping) all while trying desperately just to stay awake. He liked his sleep. It was easy for him to fall asleep and very _very_ hard to wake him up. He kept nodding off only to slump over and pull himself back awake again, even with the screaming child. Ugh. Why wasn't this working? Wegener couldn't be hungry yet, he just ate.

It only took another few seconds to find out why. A prick of pain pierced Iceland's side and an ache spread through his muscles. Volcanic activity: something Iceland had become far too familiar with over the past few weeks.

Norway's words echoed in Iceland's head:

"_It'll keep growing though,"_ Of course the only way for Wegener's island to grow was through volcanic activity.

"_There are still some aftershocks to come, but they're not too bad." _Not too bad for _Iceland, _who was both hundreds of miles away from the initial volcanic activity around the island: only feeling the far-reaching aftereffects, and older with a much higher pain tolerance. Wegener was a kid getting the full impact of whatever volcanic dish the world had cooked up this time. For him, he must have felt like his heart was exploding. The name 'Wegener' suddenly seemed like a cruel joke

Iceland was wide awake now, rocking Wegener back and forth a bit too forcefully to comfort, doing all he possibly could to help. He knew the truth though: he was completely useless in this situation. He could do nothing but watch. He remembered waking up in the same condition years ago, when he was still under Norway's care. Norway had once said he felt horrible when Iceland was 'sick' like this. He hadn't understood why at the time. After all, it was Iceland who had been in pain, not Norway, and that wasn't anyone's fault. Did he ever understand it now though.

At least then, Norway had been able to talk Iceland through it all, and Iceland could talk back. Wegener couldn't tell Iceland exactly what was wrong, and couldn't understand a word Iceland said if he tried to comfort him. Iceland was stuck with just rocking him back and forth and rubbing circles on his back.

Somehow, Iceland managed to hear a light knock on his bedroom door over Wegener's screams.

"Come in," he muttered, preoccupied. Norway opened the door and entered the room, looking a bit tired but otherwise unphased by the screaming. "Sorry to wake you up."

Norway shrugged and sat on the floor by Iceland's bed. "Thought you could use some help."

"I've got it."

Norway raised an eyebrow. "Then why is he still crying?"

"Volcanoes," Iceland put simply.

"Ah." Norway looked down at the ground, only then realizing that Iceland himself was breathing heavily, also affected by the volcanoes. "Are you okay?"

"_I'm_ fine." Iceland couldn't deny that he was a little insulted that Norway had asked about him and not Wegener. Iceland felt the little guy's head. _What in the-! _The kid was burning up!

"Take him for a minute?" Iceland asked Norway.

Norway nodded, not questioning what Iceland was doing, and took the crying nation from Iceland's arms.

Iceland padded down to the bathroom, searching through the medicine cabinet for the familiar thermometer. He didn't have to search too long for it. After all, he'd needed it a lot about two weeks ago.

Wegener's temperature ended up reading 106 degrees F and 41.1 C. Iceland's eyes bugged out of his head when he saw the number.

"Nor!" He said, panicking now.

Norway shook his head at Iceland. "Relax. This is a nation who is also a volcano, not a human child."

"Yeah but-" Iceland struggled to breathe normally at a new thought. "His island was created in a day. Who's to say it won't destroy itself in a day as well?"

"Relax. He'll be fine," a new voice said. Iceland turned to see the source of the voice: Denmark, as well as Finland and Sweden, were standing in the doorway to the room.

Great. Three more people to judge how badly he was doing on his first night as a brother. In actuality though, they were studying Iceland's worry. Iceland was normally so calm and placid. To see him the exact opposite on him was… well it was honestly creeping them out a little bit, but it also showed them how much Iceland cared.

"You don't know-" Iceland started to say, stopping when Denmark put a hand up. "If you're really worried, why don't you go get a cold washcloth? It'll cool 'im off."

"Right," Iceland muttered, turning to hand Wegener back to Norway so he could get him the washcloth.

"Can I?" Finland asked from the door tentatively, holding his arms out for Wegener.

"Ah… sure I guess." Iceland tucked the still-screaming nation into Finland's outstretched arms, holding onto him a bit longer than necessary just to make sure that Finland really had him before leaving to get the washcloth.

When he got back, Wegener was silent, though awake, in Sweden's arms. Sweden looked as stern as ever, but… different. Was he smiling? No. Maybe it was his eyes that were a little softer.

Iceland was glad that Wegener wasn't crying anymore above all, but he couldn't deny the fact that he was a little disappointed that _he_ hadn't been the one to sooth Wegener. Clearly, the volcanic attack was still going on. Iceland could feel it slightly himself, and Wegener's little blond eyebrows were scrunched up in discomfort.

"He's doing better?" Iceland asked, walking over to Sweden and putting the cold washcloth over Wegener's forehead.

" A 'lil b't."

Iceland grunted in acknowledgement and took a seat on the floor a few feet away, listening to Finland whisper about how cute Wegener was.

Wegener's eyes then met with Iceland's, and he immediately began to fuss again, pushing his way out of Swedens arms, all while making grabbing motions in Iceland's direction and letting out strings of baby-babble speech riddled with raspberries.

Iceland smiled and took Wegner into his own own arms, who snuggled into his chest before showing the first signs of drowsiness.

"He really likes you," Finland remarked.

"Yeah." Iceland was smiling now, but ended up yawning at the end of his reply.

Norway could see that neither of his two little brothers had a chance in the world of getting through the next fifteen minutes while staying conscious.

"Alright guys, let's go. Let them sleep." Norway said, herding the other Nordics out with a chorus of hushed 'goodnights'. Before closing the door behind him, Norway took one last look at his brothers. Both were already asleep on the floor: Iceland on his back, and Wegener on his stomach on top of Iceland's chest, sucking his fist.

"Finland," Norway called down the hall.

"Joo?"

"Get your camera."

**Author's Note: I hope you liked this chapter. Once again, sorry it was so short. I wasn't sure if I would have a lot of time to work on this in the upcoming days, so I had to rush to publish this chapter. Either way, the next chapter should be published by the end of the week. As usual, thank you to everyone who has followed and favorited, and a special thanks to PianoKeys4 and .143 for their encouraging reviews. If you review, please let me know anything you would like to see in upcoming chapters, as well as any criticism so long as it is kept constructive. In the next few chapter (or if not, then one of the next few) the other nations will see Wegener at a world meeting and naturally want to claim him for themselves. :) Thanks again for reading!**


	4. Planes

**Author's Note: Alright, so here is chapter four. As usual, only the character Wegener is mine. I apologize for the short length of this chapter, but I hope you enjoy it anyhow. Thanks for reading!**

Being a little kid had it's perks, Iceland had to admit. First and foremost, you could sleep and be carried when you had to leave ridiculously early in the morning to make a flight to Australia for a world meeting.

Being the _guardian_ of a little kid also had it's perks as well. You could board planes before most of the other passengers. Of course, that only meant that you were stuck on a plane with a screaming kid who had just woken up fifteen minutes longer than everyone else.

Australia. It had been a while since Iceland had visited the southern hemisphere. He liked Australia, but the season change never failed to take him by surprise. It was the dead of winter in Iceland, yet he was headed towards incredibly hot conditions. They weren't going to the hottest place in Australia, but it had been reaching just under halfway to boiling some places there lately. He dressed for cold weather to go to the airport, but knew he'd regret it later. Not that he was focused on that right now- more so on the screaming Wegener in his arms. This would be a long flight...People were already starting to throw him nasty looks. If only Wegener would stop wailing (Iceland had tried everything trying to get him to stop), then everyonecould get some much needed sleep. It didn't look like that would happen anytime soon though.

* * *

Iceland woke as the plane shook. Turbulence. He was okay with normal flights, but when the plane started shaking around, he got nervous. Out the window, the lights on the wing tips rose and fell with the violent wind currents. Then Iceland realized something: Wegener was gone. He went into full panic mode, unbuckling his seat belt and jumping up, wide eyed, ready to tear the plane apart if he had to. Heck, Iceland wasn't even on the same _plane_ as he was before_!_

A strong hand suddenly came down on Iceland's shoulder and shoved him back down into his seat. Norway.

"Shh. People are sleeping. You're going to cause a scene."

"But Wegener's-"

"Right there," Norway answered, gesturing across the isle towards his left, where Wegener was sprawled out on his back, mouth open, across the laps of the other 3 Nordics. All four were fast asleep. How Finland and Denmark managed to sleep while sitting up was beyond him.

"You don't remember anything do you?" Iceland shook his head slowly.

Norway sighed. "We got on our connecting flight a few hours back. Wegener cried all through the first one," he said, grimacing. That much Iceland remembered. How could he not? "By then, you were pretty much dead on your feet and on autopilot, and we were honestly pretty worried that you would just collapse and drop Wegener, so Sweden carried him for you. Then Denmark wanted to...then Finland. Long story short, they all started fighting over Wegener and very nearly got us kicked off our second flight at the gate"

"They?" Iceland teased, noticing a cut by Norway's ear. Norway must have been fighting over Wegener as well.

Norway just glared. "I don't know how you forgot all that." Iceland shrugged. It wasn't particularly rare for his memory to slip when he was really tired.

The plane gave another violent jolt and Iceland clutched the edge of the seat. Norway looked at him from over the magazine he was reading: one of the boring ones that they put in the back pocket of airplane seats even though almost nobody reads them.

"You're scared of flying." he stated plainly.

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"_Am not!"_

Norway leaned back in his chair and continued to read his magazine. He wasn't getting sucked into a childish game of 'am not, are too.'

"Well if you are," he said, not looking away from his magazine, "you only have to say so."

Iceland looked out the window again. He couldn't even see the wing tips through the storm clouds, just the blurry blinks of the lights on the end. He considered, _really considered_ telling Norway that he wasn't fond of (to put it lightly) flying through storms. Norway could really help when he wanted to. On the other hand though, he didn't want to look like a little kid...especially when he was taking _care_ of one himself.

A clap of thunder and a violent gust of wind shook the plane. This time you could hear all of the carry-on bags slam against the doors of the overhead compartments. Iceland inhaled sharply, grabbing at the wall and seat in front of him.

Norway suppressed a laugh. Iceland was as relaxed about this flight just about as much as America disliked fast food. The only response from the other Nordics was Denmark shifting slightly in his sleep.

The plane suddenly dropped a feet and wobbled. Iceland stood up and squeezed past a surprised Norway into the aisle suddenly. Norway frowned, poking his head around the edge of the seat. Hopefully Iceland wasn't getting motion sickness. This was a long enough flight for everyone as it was. But no, Iceland just tiptoed across the aisle and grabbed Wegener back from the other nordics, who could probably sleep through a tornado. Wegener was getting heavy quickly; the island was still growing pretty rapidly. Actually, Iceland suspected that had been why Wegener was so fussy on the first flight. Volcanoes _hurt!_

He sat down in his seat by the window again, and propped Wegener up between his arm and his chest. Wegener sighed and mumbled some baby-gibberish in his sleep. Iceland couldn't wait until he could talk. It had only been a few weeks (in which the nordics had insisted on staying with Iceland and making sure everything would be okay) since he found Wegener but he had become more and more impatient to find out just what the little island was thinking. So many languages were being spoken around him though, it would be a miracle if he picked up on one correctly at this point. Iceland was jolted from his thoughts when the plane took a sharp veer to the left (making the three nordics on the other side of the plane slide over and crush Sweden against the wall of the plane- though miraculously none of them woke up) then a slight veer to the right. Many of the other sleeping passengers awoke with a grumble, although Iceland just rested his chin on Wegener's head and inhaled that baby-scent that smelled like soap and cotton.

Norway watched all of this from over the top of his magazine. "Well he seems to have calmed you down."

Iceland just grunted - a sound that neither confirmed nor opposed Norway's comments, and frowned out the window.

"What now?" Norway sighed.

Iceland looked over to him and raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well you're obviously still upset about something." Norway wouldn't have Iceland moping around for the next several days, especially with the focus that would be on he and Wegener at the meeting.

Iceland paused, wavering for a moment, before deciding to talk. Norway was in shock. Iceland rarely ever opened up to anybody about what he was feeling, just like himself. Maybe (Norway hoped) he was just coming out of a teenage phase and would start talking to them all more openly again. Somehow, he doubted it.

"You were all fighting over him earlier. I know it was just to hold him- but what you said a few weeks ago is true. What if other countries try to take him and I can't protect him? Plus I mean, a good portion of countries declare independence eventually. What if-" Iceland stopped when he saw Norway staring at him while he talked. "What?"

"I didn't say anything. Continue."

Iceland shrugged. "That's it." Norway continued to stare off into space, thinking. "I believe this is part where you tell me that I'm just being stupid and over imaginative and not to worry." Iceland suggested.

"But you're reasons for worrying are perfectly legitimate."

Iceland heaved a sigh. It may have been been better for his peace of mind not to talk to Norway.

"One way or another, you've got us backing you up, and there's no use worrying about a future you can't control. As for the other Nations, we'll see at the meeting won't we?" Norway said.

"Yeah." This was doing little to put his mind at rest. Boy, this would be an interesting meeting.

"You've got a couple more hours left until we land. I suggest you use it and sleep while you can."

Iceland nodded, although he didn't appreciate being told what to do like he was Wegener's age again. He leaned his head against the wall of the plane and was halfway asleep when Wegener began stirring- followed by his loud baby babbling and struggles to get up and explore. Iceland sighed while Norway laughed next to him.

Well, there went his last few hours of sleep.

**Author's Note: I'm leaving soon and don't know if I'll have internet while I'm gone. Therefore, I wanted to post something (even if it wasn't much) before I left. If I have internet, then the updates will continue as normal, but if not they may be a week or so. Thanks to everyone who favorited and followed, as well as ****PianoKeys4****, **** .143, Miss Akiyata****, ****SomeSnowInShell****, and ****Transformers' BABY** **for the nice and helpful reviews! Some errors in the past chapters have been brought up so I will fix those ASAP, and I was also told about another island called Surtsey that sounds a lot like how Wegener was described. I had really hoped to include Surtsey in this chapter, but I needed to get a chapter out before I leave, and researching Surtsey would take a little more time. It will be in the next chapter though! :) Reviews are very much appreciated and please don't hesitate to point out any errors or criticize so long as criticism is kept constructive. Oh, and one last thing (sorry) if you review, but would not like your name mentioned, please let me know!**


	5. Meetings and Bad Scones

**Hello again! This is chapter five I believe (starting to lose count) :). Well, as usual I'm required to say that none of the characters, with the exception of Wegener are mine. Enjoy!**

Wegener stood by a low table, using it to support his weight while Iceland watched expressionlessly, secretly hoping that he would let go of the table and take his first steps. Norway told him to just be patient, but weren't most human kids his physical age already walking?

He let go of the table, balancing for a moment, before falling backwards into a sitting position, looking utterly stunned. _Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry!_ Iceland had managed to get Wegener up to the hotel room in Australia without the other nations noticing. Luck was on his side as well, and Wegener hadn't cried since they got there. There would be no way to hide _that_ from the other nations.

Luckily, Wegener just made a face and released some frustrated babbles before pulling himself up again.

"Come here," Iceland called. Wegener looked up at him with his big purple eyes before deciding to ignore him and try to stand again. Iceland sighed and went to go grab Wegener himself. He'd have to leave for the meeting in fifteen minutes, and Wegener's hair looked fit for some animals to make a nest in. He was able to comb it out well enough, but that cowlick was still sticking up. Iceland put some water on it, hoping that it would help. Now it was just a wet cowlick. Oh well, it wasn't really all _that_ noticeable, was it? One way or another, it would have to do.

"Let's go then," Iceland sighed. Wegener reached his arms up so that Iceland could pick him up, and suddenly found Iceland's hair overly-interesting once he was being held. He messed it up as he brushed it with his fingers.

When he opened up the door to his room, Finland was standing there, hand raised about to knock.

"Oh. There you are. Ready to go?" Iceland shrugged and shut the door behind him. No. He was most definitely _not_ ready to go. He should have stayed home and made up some excuse about being sick. He had actually suggested this, much to Norway's disapproval. Sweden had actually brought up a good point, too: most of the other nations were still mad at him for all the ash his volcanoes had put in the air (not that he had any control- and it's not like some of the other countries weren't at fault too this time). The other four Nordics' vote was unanimous though: he and Wegener had to attend this meeting.

"Don't worry Iceland, It'll be okay," Finland said happily. Was it that obvious that he was nervous? Normally people couldn't tell. Then again, Finland had known him longer than most people.

"I guess," Iceland responded. All he really wanted was for this world meeting to be over. Sweden, Norway, and Denmark were waiting by the elevator for them. They were leaving early to try to avoid too many people on the way into the meeting.

Norway looked like he was about ready to fall over from exhaustion. Iceland couldn't imagine why. _He_ wasn't the one who had to stay up with a toddler on a twenty hour plane flight from Iceland to Australia.

Sweden pressed the button for the elevator, which was already waiting, and stepped inside. They were on the eleventh floor of a twelve-floor building.

"You're getting heavy," Iceland muttered to Wegener, setting him back down. Wegener proceeded to crawl over to the elevator wall, pull himself up by the railing, and run his hands down all of the elevator buttons within his reach. Sweden pulled him away before he climbed up to reach the top buttons.

Iceland groaned. So much for leaving early. On every one of the bottom seven levels, the elevator stopped and opened for half a minute, while each of the Nordics jabbed the inconveniently broken 'close door' button.

"We should just leave on the next level and take the stairs," Denmark suggested.

"Alright," Finland agreed.

Too late though. On the next floor down, in walked England. Iceland grimaced. He still was somewhat bothered by the cod wars.

"Hello Iceland," England said, not having noticed Wegener staring at him in the corner.

Iceland nodded. "Hello."

"So," England said. Iceland tensed. He couldn't tell if England would want compensation for the damage his volcanoes had done, or if he would offer some form of sympathy for what had happened to him. "have you been doing alright lately?"

Iceland nodded, relieved. "Good. You?"

England, fairly close by, had felt some of the effects of the freaky volcanic activity, but had only suffered very minor (and fixable) structural damage to some of it's older buildings.

"I'm well."

And that was the end of that uncomfortable conversation. Of course, it only led to an even more uncomfortable silence. It didn't take England long to realize that they were stopping at every floor, and look over to the right, where all of the buttons were, not to mention a mesmerized Wegener, sitting on the ground looking up at England wide-eyed. Wegener hadn't been around many people before, so every new person he saw fascinated him.

The huge purple eyes caught England off-guard. "Oh," he said, jumping slightly before kneeling down to Wegener's height, the annoyingly slow elevator completely forgotten. "What's your name, little one?"

Wegener stared at England for several seconds, then up at Iceland for a cue on what to do.

"This is Wegener," Finland said, leaning down to pat the him on the head. "The new island."

England raised his eyebrows. _I know, _Iceland thought. _None of us expected to find a new personification either. _"Well then hello Wegener. I'm England."

Wegener smiled faintly at him, but still moved to hide behind the legs of the Nordics and reached his arms up in an invitation to be picked up, which Iceland agreed to all too quickly.

"Well," England said as the elevator finally reached the lobby and they all went to their cars to leave for where the meeting would be held, "I a suppose we'll talk at the meeting."

Sweden nodded while Iceland helped Wegener into the car, unnerved now. _Talk. _What did _that_ mean?

" He'll 'b f'ne" Sweden said, seeing Iceland's worry. Sweden had been on the fence about Iceland taking care of Wegener at first, as had Denmark, but both were convinced now. It was true, Iceland didn't know what to do in several situations regarding Wegener, but he was more than willing to learn, and that was enough.

England and the Nordics weren't the only ones who had the idea of arriving early. In fact, by comparison to everyone else, the Nordics were late.

The meeting room was in absolute chaos. Countries demanding money for the money lost in air flights due to another's volcanic eruption. Those accused countries insisting they owed nothing amid a chorus of more sympathetic countries checking to see that those affected by the new island's appearance were recovering well as well as old arguments that managed to resurface. Even Germany was finding that he was unable to reestablish order.

Yet somehow, a young toddler raspberry managed to silence and turn every head in the room.

All eyes stared at Wegener, who was beginning to whimper with all the new attention that had been directed his way.

"This would be Wegener, the new island," Norway said to them all with a tone as impassive as Sweden's expression, even though all of the Nordics' were holding their breath in anticipation of the reaction.

Nobody moved though. Iceland didn't know what to expect. Would they gradually start arguing like normal? Would they attack? Would they break out into an indecipherable chorus of shouts at any second? Would they handle the situation civilly? Wait no, that last option wasn't possible.

"A new nation?" Lithuania was the first to speak

_That_ was when chaos broke loose. The entire room erupted into hundreds of shouts so that no-one could be heard individually, although Iceland swore he heard Hungary say something along the lines of dressing Wegener up in her clothes, to which he barked a quick "no."

"_Quiet!"_ Germany shouted. The nations didn't immediately sit down like they normally did though. Germany had to go around talking individually to everyone to get them to settle down, and even then, the yelling had only decreased slightly.

"Okay," Germany said, pinching the bridge of his nose at the front of the room. "I think we know what's first on the agenda. Nordics, have anything else to add?"

Norway cleared his throat. Might as well get it all over with quickly. "The new island is named Wegener. It's personification was found shortly after it's appearance. Iceland is Wegener's guardian," he said plainly.

The room broke out into whispers and mutters underneath the already existing shouts. Iceland looked around and strained his ears trying to figure out if they were approving or disapproving. He couldn't tell though. The noise of the entire room had settled into a monotone hum of voices.

Romano spoke up above them all next. "So is it _him_ that we should get our lost airline money from then?"

"What? No!" Iceland said, appalled. For goodness sake, the kid couldn't even _talk _yet! It was a miracle any new nation survived these people.

"Why _are_ you taking care of him, Iceland?" England asked, disregarding Romano's comment. "After all, Wegener is close to me, and you've been busy dealing with the volcanoes."

Iceland tensed and opened his mouth to say some remark that he hadn't quite come up with yet, but Denmark quickly turned to look at him, shaking his head. If Iceland was to solidify his place as guardian among the other nations, he couldn't go off making smart comebacks.

Iceland sat back in his chair, fuming. The things he would like to say to everyone questioning his guardianship of Wegener…

"Location doesn't make it the closest country's property," someone said.

"Thank you!" Iceland blurted out. Norway's eyes widened. Oh no. That argument could be used against him, and not just England. _Think! _he shouted at himself. Iceland looked around the room for the person who had said that about location, and stopped breathing altogether when he saw who it was: Russia, staring intently at Wegener, smiling so slightly that Iceland wondered if he was imagining it. My gosh, didn't he ever blink!?

"He should become a part of Russia, no?"

"England!"

"France!"

And suddenly, the entire room was fighting over custody of Wegener. Of _Iceland's _Wegener. Iceland bared his teeth and looked at the other nations who dared open their mouths to speak out against him. Wegener pushed himself further back in chair, trying to wriggle his way under Iceland's arm. He hadn't been around so many people before, much less so many _yelling_ people, and didn't like it in the slightest. He was on the verge of tears, in fact.

Iceland was too angry to notice, although he did hold on to Wegener tightly, which was helping the little guy slightly.

France had moved on from arguing with England and went over to Wegener to bribe him with a platter of food. Iceland chose not to dwell on the fact that France seemed to have been able to pull food out of thin air, and instead began to swat the food away from Wegener's reach. "Get that away from him." He did not, however, see the scone England had managed to smuggle over to him in some sort of attempt at bribery as well

. Wegener reached out to it, putting the scone in his mouth and sucking on it.

"-Ucky foo-" he babbled, scrunching up his face and letting the scone-burnt on the bottom- fall into his lap.

"L'ts go," Sweden suddenly said in a deep voice.

"What?" Iceland asked confused. Why would they be leaving already? Sweden stood up, taking a slightly protective stance in front of Iceland and Wegener. Iceland peered around him to see what the problem was. The arguing was escalating quickly. He was only able to pick up little snippits of speech though.

"-Why-even want him?"

"-island will grow-might be big-someday; I -get it now then-"

"-can't- just leave them alone?"

"Pasta."

"I'll save you from all of them!"

"Still-compensation for-ash- canceled plane flights-"

"Pasta-"

"How-even- personification?

"Iceland-"

Iceland couldn't keep up with it all. He saw what Sweden was talking about though. The argument was turning violent in several places around the room, and was quickly being drawn towards Wegener. Defenseless little Wegener.

Iceland stood up with Wegener and the other Nordics, who quickly moved towards the door. Germany grimaced. The Nordics were needed at this meeting, but he couldn't argue with their reasons for leaving.

Iceland helped Wegener into the car outside the building while Sweden watched to make sure nobody was following. Heck, they were all probably too busy arguing to notice their departure.

Once Wegener was secured in his seat, Denmark climbed in, squishing Iceland in between he and Wegener. Then, the car was off.

Norway drove while Sweden opted to sit in the passenger seat. Finland got stuck sitting in the third row of seats in the back, although it had to be more comfortable than Iceland's seat.

"You two okay?" Norway asked, looking at his two little brothers in the rear view mirror.

"Yeah." Iceland said tersely. Wegener was still staring into the air, wide-eyed and a bit shocked. Not a people person, obviously.

Finland leaned forward, playing peek-a-boo with Wegener trying to calm him down, although Wegener wasn't really cooperating.

"Never had this problem with Surtsey," Iceland mumbled, not intending for anyone else to hear. Norways creepily good hearing picked up on it though.

"Surtsey doesn't have a personification," he said. "Plus, it's much closer to your coast. Most other nations couldn't argue with you if you said it was yours." Surtsey was an island quite similar to Wegener, appearing in the ocean much the same way, though a bit (all right, a lot) less violently than Wegener had appeared.

"But why?" Iceland asked, puzzled. It was not the first time Iceland had wondered this. "Why does Wegener have a personification when most other micro-islands don't?"

Norway shrugged as he sped away from the building. "Wegener's island is bigger than Surtsey."

"So you think it's size then? What about Sealand?" Sweden's muscles tensed, ready to defend Sealand if needed.

"There were people with permanent residence on Sealand."

"But there's _nobody_ on Wegener's island."

Norway shrugged. "It's a mystery."

Iceland nodded and closed his eyes, overwhelmed. "So who do we need to worry about now?"

"Russia showed an interest in taking over Wegener's island, since it will grow tremendously in the near future and make good farmland." Iceland had to hold back a growl. People using Wegener just for fertile soil. "France did too...and a few others."

"England?" Finland suggested.

"No," Norway flashed a rare grin. "I think Wegener took care of him all on his own."

Denmark chucked beside Iceland. "His first words were 'yucky food.' I'm proud of him."

**Well that's chapter five for you! I really do like England, I'm sorry, it just made sense for him to be one of the ones wanting custody of Wegener since he was close by geographically. Reviews are very much appreciated, and please don't hesitate to let me know if I did anything wrong with information, grammar, writing style, etc. so long as criticism is kept constructive. A big thanks to everyone who read, followed, favorited, and especially to my latest reviewers: St. Helena, animeduchess14, Miss Akiyata, and Transformers' BABY. If you review but don't want your name mentioned, please let me know! The next few chapters will be probably be about Iceland and the other Nordics raising Wegener as usual, but I will eventually move on to chapters with an older Wegener, Wegener's independence, etc. I may work on correcting language mistakes and editing chapter one (which horrified me when I reread it) before posting chapter 6 though. Thanks once again for reading, everyone!**


	6. Big Brother

**Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Hetalia characters, Wegener excluded, still aren't mine. I wasn't planning on writing this, but I've been busy re-editing the first couple chapters, and wanted to update in the meantime. Enjoy!**

"Just say it. Big brother. It's not that hard."  
Wegener stared up at Iceland for a minute before deciding that it wasn't worth his time. He raspberried in Iceland's face and went back to stacking blocks.

Iceland rolled his eyes. "Come on. Just once. _Big. Brother_._"_ Wegener would do no such thing. "Ice-lin" he muttered, not looking away from his blocks.

Norway watched all of this silently from the doorway. He rarely broke down laughing, but he was struggling not to now. How was that for a taste of Iceland's own medicine?

Wegener had grown up quite a bit in the past few months. He could now take some awfully wobbly steps, and talk in very mis-pronounced speech. He, as Iceland had predicted and worried endlessly about, had trouble differentiating the words and sentence structures of the different languages being spoken around him, and often talked in a primarily Icelandic jumbled up mix of several of them, which Iceland was fighting tooth and nail to correct. It was going pretty well actually… all except for the 'big brother' part. Wegener insisted on Iceland being called Iceland… or "ice-lin" in his baby-talk.

Finally, Norway couldn't hold back his laughter anymore. Iceland whirled around, blushing.

"It seems as though the tides have turned," he said, walking in, earning a happy "Nor-wa!" from Wegener. Norway reached down to pick Wegener up, who happily forgot his blocks.

"No they haven't" Iceland said quickly. "I'm still not calling you big brother...and he will."

"But just the fact that you want him to-" Norway trailed off, chuckling.

"Shut up," Iceland muttered, too quiet for Wegener to pick up on, but hopefully loud enough for Norway to hear. "Why are you even here anyway?" Everyone had gone back to their own countries shortly after the meeting, after seeing that none of the other nations sought immediate action when came to who was watching Wegener.

"We're all visiting,"

"All?" Iceland paled.

"All of us. Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and myself."

Iceland groaned and fell back onto the floor. He didn't dislike seeing the Nordics, but he hated people breathing down his neck all the time. "_Why?_ How did you even get _in _here?"

"I thought you could use some help. And for your information, I walked in, genius."

"That's not walking in. That's breaking and entering."

"I didn't _break_ anything. If you want to keep people out, lock the door."

Iceland grimaced. He shouldn't _have_ to lock the door. "Well thanks for breaking into my house and all, but I've got everything under control."

Norway raised his eyebrows. Iceland raised his back.

"If by under control you mean leaving your door unlocked for anyone to waltz in, a complete lack of food in the house, about eight loads of laundry that needs to be done, and a toddler blatantly disobeying you, then sure. You've got everything under control and I should just go."

"Okay," Iceland said, just testing Norway at this point.

Norway heaved a sigh. "You should really accept help if it's being handed out. I didn't get all that much with you."

Iceland stiffened. What was _that_ supposed to mean? He couldn't have been that much trouble, could he? Or maybe it was just Norway's way of reminding him that he used to be his guardian. He could never tell when it came to Norway.

Norway sat down by the window and sat Wegener up on his knee.

"Well hello Wegener."

"Hi-" he replied, drawing out the 'i' sound until he was out of breath.

Norway couldn't help but smirk. "So I hear you've been walking? Can you show me?" Norway placed Wegener in a standing position. He managed to stumble a few feet unsteadily before falling down.

Iceland made a move to go get him, before catching Norway's disapproving glance.

"He's fine Iceland. Let him learn things for himself."

Iceland flinched, watching Wegener's lower lip tremble. "Alright." Norway was probably right.

Wegener picked himself up and half walked- half crawled back to Norway, babbling on about a toy of his, even though Norway could probably only understand every tenth word out of the toddler's mouth.

"He's sure happy to see you," Iceland said, allowing a note of jealousy to slip into his voice.

Norway ignored it.

"Wegener, can you say _big brother Norway?"_

"Big bru-der Nor-wa" he mimicked happily, smiling with his few teeth.

"Oh so he'll listen when _you_ say it!" Iceland threw his hands in the air.

"Relax." Norway rolled his eyes. "He's just excited. I'm not normally here." Iceland wanted to point out that everyone had been inviting themselves over a bit too much lately, but decided against it.

There was long pause as Iceland thought.

"Hey Norway?"

"Yes?"

Iceland paused for a moment more, about to say 'nevermind'. "Do you think you could tell him to call me big brother?" he muttered, immediately regretting his decision to ask.

Norway smirked. "Maybe."

"Maybe? What do you mean '_maybe?'"_

"Call me big brother, and I'll tell him to call _you_ big brother."

"What? No way." Iceland crossed his arms.

"Alright." Norway sat back, playing with Wegener for a bit. It was only a matter of time before Iceland caved.

"Why do you _care_ so much?" Iceland went on, only digging himself deeper into Norway's plan.

"Why do _you_ care, Iceland?"

"I don't."

"You're a bad liar."

Iceland glared at Norway. To Iceland, Wegener calling him 'big brother' was like a stamp of approval for his guardianship of him. Even if some of the other nations didn't approve, at least Wegener would. He suspected that Norway wanted him to say big brother again because it would mean 'I'm still the same person who used to call you big brother and look up to you.' Iceland sighed, staring. He understood, but he wasn't a little kid anymore, nor the same person he was back then.

"Fine...would you please-" he grimaced "ask him to call me that...big brother?" He cringed at how that felt in his mouth.

Norway smirked. "Why of course." He spun Wegener around so that they were facing eachother. "Wegener? Can you say '_big brother Iceland?"_

"Big bru-der Ice-lin"

"Good." Norway nodded. "Now can you call him that from now on?"

Wegener scrunched up his face in confusion. "Name?" he asked.

"Yes, as a name."

Wegener looked back and forth between Iceland and Norway. "No." he said finally. "Name es Ice-lin."

"Come on Wegener-"

"_No!_"

Iceland groaned, sliding down to the floor next to his two brothers.

"Seriously?" he asked Norway. "Do I still have to call you-"?

"Yes."

**Well there you go. Once again, I'm mainly working on correcting the first few chapters, which makes me cringe when I reread them. Either way, I'll try to update with SOMETHING every couple of days. Thanks once again to all who read and favorited, and a special thanks to chapter 5's reviewers: Transformers' BABY, and Miss Akiyata. If anyone has any requests or suggestions for these chapters or additional ones, PLEASE let me know! Also, all constructive criticism is welcome! Thanks for reading, reviews are greatly appreciated. :)**


	7. Worries

**Alright, so here's chapter...7 I think? Sorry it took so long, I've been without internet and traveling a lot. As usual, the only character that is mine is Wegener. I had an idea for where I wanted this story to go, but I'm finding it's not working as well as imagined, so if you have a request for a chapter pleeeeeeeeeeeease let me know; I'm running out of ideas! Anyhow, I hope you enjoy chapter 7!**

"_Wegener!" _ Iceland darted out of his hotel room wearing some wrinkled-mismatched clothes he had thrown on last-second underneath his brown coat.

"What. The. _Heck _are you doing Iceland?" Denmark said, stepping out of his room across the hall.

"Wegener's gone," he panted.

"What do you mean he's gone? And keep your voice down. It's five in the morning!" All of the Nations were gathered for another world meeting, in Russia this time.

"Says the person yelling," Norway muttered, stepping out of his own room. He looked like he'd actually had time to make himself look like he didn't wake up 30 seconds ago. "What do you mean he's gone?"

"I don't _know!"_ Iceland hissed, running a hand through his hair.

"Calm down. He couldn't have gotten far," Norway said calmly as Denmark left to go get Finland and Sweden from both of their rooms.

"_Calm Down?"_ Iceland asked, trying to focus on warding off a headache, although he knew it wouldn't work. He didn't know how much more of this he could take. He loved Wegener of course, but he had been driving him up the walls lately.

It had only been just over a year since Iceland found him, but Wegener already appeared to be about about six years old. Despite the occasional mispronunciation, he could talk very well. Not only did he talk well, but he talked _back…_a lot. His latest outburst had been about not going to the world meeting. He was allowed to be at the first one because the meeting was _about_ Wegener. But not since then. Wegener wasn't really a _nation_ with _citizens_ yet. Therefore, he'd have to wait with Sealand and some of the other micronations.

But this time? This time he'd gone too far. He said he was running away, but Iceland didn't think he would _actually_ do it! How often did kids actually do that?

" Are 'y sure he's n't hid'ng 'n the room?" Sweden asked, joining them. Finland followed, looking incredibly displeased with being up so early. Iceland nodded in response to Sweden's question.

"If he's not here, why are _you_ still here?" England's question made them all jump.

"What are you doing up."

"You were yelling," England said nonchalantly. "Shall I help you look for the lad?"

"That would be very helpful, thank you," Norway said before anyone else could open their mouths. Iceland gaped. Had he forgotten that it was _England_ who had his sights set on having Wegener as a colony?

"Lets go then," England said.

So they all went, with Iceland grumbling under his breath. His little brother ran away in _Russia,_ who had stated on more than one occasion that he'd be happy to 'take Wegener off his hands,' and looking for him with England, who was still thinking about taking over the little island.

* * *

"Did you see a little kid walk out?" Finland drowsily asked the receptionist.

"Ah yes, he left about a half hour ago."

"And you just let a little kid out in the middle of the night!?" Iceland lunged for the front desk, held back by Sweden and Denmark. The receptionist froze eyes wide, looking on the verge of tears. Iceland stopped, sorry for a moment. But seriously, who lets a six year old out into the snow in the middle of the night?

"Come on Icey, we're just wasting time."

Iceland let out a breath through his teeth but followed everyone else outside and left the receptionist. There was snow outside, and a lot of it, but it appeared to have stopped snowing a few hours back and there were kid-sized footprints dotting the snow. Well, more like holes than footprints. It looked as though half the poor kid's body had sunken into the snow with each step.

"Well it looks like it'll be easy to find him," England remarked. They all continued down the trail of 'footprints' in silence.

"What's that?" Finland asked Norway suddenly, who was holding a cup in his hands.

"Coffee."

"Give me-" Finland hissed, reaching towards it as Norway pulled it away. Their bickering continued for several minutes. Iceland closed his eyes. They might finally push him over the edge with this.

"_Hello _you two? Bigger problems here," Denmark called. Iceland looked up. the snow on the path had given way to hard, non-footprint carrying ice…right before a fork in the sidewalk they were on.

Iceland let out a frustrated groan. That. Was. It. Just when he felt like he was going to snap once and for all, he felt a hand on his shoulder, more so keeping him in place than comforting him. He looked over, no, _up_ to see Sweden.

"Calm d'wn Icel'nd. W'll just split up." He looked back for a moment at the bickering forms of Norway and Finland. "Best split th'm up too." Iceland nodded.

In the end, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark went one way while he, England, and Norway, went the other way. Both paths went through a section of shops and stores that were closed at this hour.

"Iceland. Just calm down." Norway said as they searched the streets.

" I _AM CALM!"_ Iceland yelled, fists clenched by his sides. Both Norway and England stared with identical expressions.

"Iceland? What's up?" Norway asked again once they were a distance away from England. He was lucky if Iceland ever opened up to him at all (which he had been doing a bit more often lately when Wegener was involved) but knew there was no chance of squeezing any emotions out of him when someone he didn't know well was around.

"What's up? Wegener's gone."

"Well obviously."

Iceland sighed. Norway wasn't going to let this go, was he? "Fine. Wegener's gone and it's my fault."

Norway raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"He- we got into an argument last night when I wouldn't let him to the meeting tomorrow, well I guess it's today now, and said he would run away, but I didn't think he'd actually _do _it."

"But he's _not_ allowed in meetings yet, and most kids _don't_ follow through with that threat."

"I _know_ but...it's been like this with_everything._ We can't go an hour without an argument and- I- what if I'm just not a good brother?"

Norway smiled at the sidewalk as they walked, shaking his head.

"Stop stressing out so much. He's a kid. Kids don't like rules."

"Yeah…" Iceland said, trailing off. Norway studied him for another minute. He knew Iceland hated it when he pried these things out of him, but he couldn't help it.

"What else is wrong?"

"Nothing! I'm not a little kid anymore, you don't have to check up on every detail of my life you know."

"You're still my little brother. What's wrong?"

"_Nothing."_

"_Iceland!"_

Iceland groaned. "What if… what if he declares independence or something?"

"Iceland, he's _six!"_

"_And_ technically only a year old. He's growing up too quickly. People will start moving there soon and even if not now,_someday-"_

"Look. Iceland. Just- calm down. Contrary to what you may think, you are not the only one in the world with these worries."

Iceland almost wished the two of them were human. Humans went to school, and left home at a very _predictable _time. Nations didn't. Humans also normally stayed in touch and on good terms with their kids after they left. It often didn't turn out so nicely for nations. Plus, nations were taken over by new nations. Humans didn't have to worry about that.

"..Did you worry about that? With me?"

Norway was silent and for a minute, and Iceland thought he must not have heard the question, but then he heard a quiet "yes."

"...Oh. Sorry."

Norway shrugged. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"And after a while, losing a colony really isn't so bad," England chimed in suddenly, making them both jump. Apparently they hadn't been out of earshot. Iceland raised his eyebrows, but nodded anyway. He and America still bickered a bit at the meetings. "America and I are actually on better terms than it seems."

Suddenly, they heard a whimper. Surely enough, Wegener was sitting there on a bench, hugging his knees with his eyes squeezed shut.

"Wegener?" the three of them ran over, and Iceland sat next to him, pulling the kid into his lap. "Come on buddy, open your eyes." Wegener just squeezed his eyes closed tighter and coughed. He was shivering violently and was soaked from the snow he had trudged through, which was now freezing again.

England came over and Iceland stiffened. "Relax," England said, sounding slightly annoyed now. "I'm not coming to take him, I'm coming to give him this." He kneeled down to Wegener's level and wrapped his coat around him. Norway and Iceland quickly did the same.

"Let's get him back to somewhere warm." Iceland muttered, carrying him back down the path.

"Iceland?" Wegener asked, cracking his eyes open.

"Right here."

" 'M cold"

"I know. We're going back now." Wegener was shivering less profusely. Iceland didn't know if that was a sign of him warming up, or if it meant that hypothermia had set in to the extreme. "Just hang in there." Sweden, Finland, and Denmark would just have to find them on their own. They didn't have time to go looking for the three. Wegener would be an ice statue if was out here much longer.

* * *

After a good doctor's visit, Wegener was swaddled up in blankets with a hot chocolate in his hands back at the hotel. Iceland, by doctor's orders, was staying 'home' from the meeting to keep an eye on the little guy, and Norway was staying with him until lunch.

"You feeling better now Wegener?" Norway asked.

"Mm-hmm," he replied, hot-chocolate foam all around his mouth.

"Are _you?"_

Iceland didn't even realize Norway was talking to him until he looked up to two faces expecting an answer.

"Uh...yeah I guess."

"I promise you're not doing as badly as you think you are."

"Key word: as." he muttered.

Norway gave Iceland that look that said he wanted him to say what was bothering him. Not this time. Iceland had been sharing a bit too much about what he was thinking in his opinion. As much as Norway was enjoying helping Iceland, some things Iceland just didn't want to talk about. But maybe he was right. Even England had stepped and told Iceland he was doing fine as a big brother and to stop worrying. Easier said than done, but maybe everything really would be okay.

**I hope you liked it. Chapter 8 will be up within a week hopefully. Thanks to everyone who read, favorited, followed, and reviewed. Thanks to my latest reviewers:Rylee****Wyatt, Transformers' BABY, animeduchess14, Pfft, and Miss Akiyata. (If I forgot your review or misspelled your name just let me know). Reviews are appreciated and constructive criticism we****lcome!**


	8. Coffee

**Alright. Here's chapter 8! So the two requests I got were to know Wegener a little bit better and for ice cream! :) Luckily I can do both in one chapter. If you have any requests for chapters, just let me know (though they might be chapter 10 since I'm already working on 9). Thank you so much to everyone who has given me feedback on multiple chapters, it helps so much! It might be over a week before I post chapter 9 since I want to work on different stories and editing this one (It's just painful to read the other chapters I wrote in the past. Does that happen to anyone else?) but I will work on putting out chapters a bit more quickly after the first few are fixed. Anyway, as usual the only character that is mine is Wegener. Enjoy!**

"Can we go get Ice Cream?" Wegener asked. He knew he had been half-frozen that morning when he ran away, but with all of the blankets everyone wrapped around him, and the hot chocolate they were making him drink, he was burning up.

"You need to keep warm," Iceland said sternly.

"But I'm _sweating!"_ Wegener panted for effect.

Denmark let out a booming laugh. He and Norway had switched places after lunch so that they could both get some time in the meeting and keep their two little brothers company. "It's not so bad, kid," he said, getting up and ruffling the little island's hair. He paused suddenly, frowning and pressing a hand up against his head. "Ice, he is kinda warm."

Wegener smiled and jumped into Denmark's unsuspecting arms. "Sooo. . . can we get ice cream then?"

"Wegener, I don't know," It was only a few hours ago that the little guy nearly ended up a popsicle.

"_Pleeeeeeeeeease!" _ both Denmark and Wegener said together, with identical smiles. They knew just what to do to get Iceland to comply.

"Fine, fine," Iceland groaned. "There's a coffee shop down the street that sells ice cream, right Denmark?"

"I think so," he said, shrugging. He honestly hadn't paid much attention to what was down the street. He'd been too busy looking for Wegener.

"Alright," he sighed. Let's go.

* * *

"Can I get a coffee please?" Denmark said, ordering at the coffee shop.

"Make that two," Iceland added, struggling not to yawn. He wasn't the world's biggest coffee drinker, but he hadn't gotten any sleep since finding Wegener so early in the morning, if you could even call it morning. "What about you Wegener? What flavor ice cream do you want?"

Wegener looked from the ice cream to Iceland and Denmark, wavering. "I want a coffee too," he finally said.

Denmark laughed and Iceland was trying not to with limited success. "Wegener, I don't think you'd like it. It's not for little kids."

"But I'm a big boy now!" Wegener said, truly and honestly offended.

"I know, I know," Iceland said, ruffling his hair. "But seriously, go pick out some ice cream. That's the reason we're here after all."

"_But Iceland-"_

"No buts."

Wegener took a deep breath. He couldn't go to world meetings. He couldn't get coffee. He just wanted to be all grown up and get to do the things Iceland and the other Nordics got to do. He knew he was big enough to go to meetings and do everything they did, he _knew_ it. If he could just prove it by drinking coffee…

"Iceland? Please?"

"Tell you what," Denmark said, kneeling down to Wegener's height. "What if I let you have some of my coffee, and then if you like it, you can get some of your own?"

Wegener smiled and looked up at Iceland for permission. He nodded with a sigh. Yes! _Now_ he could show them!

Denmark got an extra cup and poured about a third of his coffee into it. Wegener stared into it, excited, and took a huge gulp.

He nearly spit it out, and gagged, eyes watering as he swallowed it. Ick! _That _didn't taste like chocolate! How could something look so much like hot chocolate and taste like...like _that!?_

"Well? How is it?"

"It's," Wegener coughed, trying to get the bitter taste out of his mouth. "great," his voice broke into a croaking sound on the last word as he coughed again. Iceland raised an eyebrow. Wegener knew he could drink it all though. He had to! He took another sip, braced for the bitterness this time, swallowed without scrunching up his face, and looked down into the brownish-blackish liquid that suddenly resembled soot and dirt more than chocolate. If he was going to drink this stuff, he would just need to get it over with. So, though against his better judgement, he tilted his head back and drained the coffee out of the cup, wanting to throw up the whole time.

"Aww, look at him Icey!"

Iceland smirked knowingly at Wegener as the little guy tried to scrape the taste off of his tongue with his teeth. "So Wegener, if you liked it so much, how about your own whole cup of coffee?" Wegener paled. "That was what you wanted, right?" Wegener nodded at the floor. Iceland rolled his eyes, smiling, and kneeled down, forcing Wegener to look at him. "Would you rather get some ice cream little guy?"

"Yeah," he said in defeat.

"Umm-" Iceland pulled Wegener into a very brief, awkward hug before ruffling his hair again. "Don't worry. You'll probably like it more when you're older." Wegener nodded, faking a smile. He wanted to be older _now_ though. "Chocolate flavored, right?" He nodded, fake smile turning genuine.

"So the world meeting-" Wegener said, as Iceland handed him a chocolate cone. Iceland cast him a warning glance. He had decided that that mornings fiasco finding Wegener had been punishment enough for everyone, but was considering coming up with and actual punishment for him if he was still going to carry on with the topic even after everything that had happened.

"Wegener, you know you can't-"

"I know, I know." he said through a mouthful of chocolate ice cream. "But _when?_ When can I go with you?"

Iceland sighed. "I don't know. At the rate you're growing, not long."

"Okay," he said in a tone very few would recognize as disappointment. Not long. What kind of not long was that? The kind of not long that meant it wouldn't be long before you left for a trip to the store, or the kind of not long that meant it wouldn't be long until a kid was all grown up with a job of their own? He guessed the latter.

But one day, one day he'd like coffee, and then he would be big enough to go to meetings with Iceland.

"You used to be just like that you know," Denmark laughed, elbowing Iceland in the side.

"Hmph," he replied, though he knew it was true. "Um...Denmark?"

"Yeah?"

"That coffee you gave him wasn't decaf...was it?"

"No, why would it...uh oh."

**Well thanks for reading! I know I say this at the end of every chapter, but seriously thank you to everyone who read, favorited, and reviewed! Thank you so much to chapter 7's reviewers: St. Helena, PianoKeys4, Transformers' BABY, Miss Akiyata, and Aurora Chen. Criticism is welcome so long as it is constructive (really, don't be afraid to let me know something I did wrong- I need it to make new chapters better). Thanks again for reading. **


	9. New Era

**Hi! Sorry it's been so long since I updated. I haven't forgotten about this, I promise! Things have been crazy lately, although I did manage to make some very **_**very **_**minor edits in the earlier chapters, and post a really short one-shot. If it makes up for the delay, this chapter is a little longer than most of the other ones. If you would like to suggest an idea for a chapter, just let me know, even if it has to go in-between two others (although I do have a basic plan for where the story will go, so I may not be able to take all suggestions :( ) Anyway, the only character that is mine is Wegener. I hope you enjoy chapter 9!**

Wegener's eyes were wide and unblinking.

"Are you okay?" Iceland asked. He could only imagine what the little guy was going through. Actually, he wasn't really all that little anymore. Sure, he was still a kid, and about seven or eight if he had to guess, but he was a _tall _kid. Long gone were the days of picking Wegener up and carrying him around, or of telling him bedtime stories. He would miss those days. As bad as it sounded, some days Iceland found himself just wishing he could get littler Wegener back. It wasn't that he didn't like Wegener _now, _not at all, it was just that… Wegener needed him less and less...and less. But he was _so _proud of him. Especially now.

Wegener nodded, although he was otherwise frozen in place. Today was the day that he got his first citizens. Today was the day that he went from having just his own voice in his head to hundreds. After several years, scientists deemed the north-easternmost part of the island safe from the island's volcano, which was still causing the island to grow quite literally away from Iceland. Buildings had been going up there for the past few months, and today, they all opened.

Nobody could relate to Wegener today, say 'I know, I've been there too,' or 'this is what you should do.' Iceland had been connected to his citizens ever since he could remember. To go from almost human to _this_ must be incomprehensible.

Everyone was visiting Finland right now. Wegener didn't want to be on his island today. Actually, he hadn't been back since he was found. So, to distract him, Finland offered to let everyone visit...and everyone may or may not have gathered to try to convince Wegener to be with his people today.

"How's he doing?" Finland asked, walking to the kitchen for his morning coffee.

"Alright." _I think. _

Wegener had stopped answering a few hours ago. That had been moved to the bottom of his priority list. It wasn't that getting citizens was _bad,_ he had been waiting for this day _forever!_ It was just…overwhelming. Actually _going_ to the island…it would just be too much right now. He wanted to go run to Iceland and be told everything was okay so badly he almost felt tears prick his eyes, but he couldn't. He was really a nation now. He had _citizens _now (well, technically they were Icelandic citizens, but still). He had to be big.

"Wegener?" Wegener blinked to see Denmark waving a hand in front of his face. "Ya there little dude?"

"Huh?"

"L'sten Wegen'r," Sweden said, sitting down on the coffee table across from the couch that Wegener was sitting on so that they were both seeing eye to eye. "I get why 'y d'nt want t' go to your island," he started to say, even though nobody understood why he didn't want to go, " b't this 's something 'y have to do...as a nation." Wegener looked around at all of the Nordics. Did they set this up? Did all of them gather here just to tell him he had to go to the island? "Look. I d'nt want 't force 'y to-"

"I'll go." Wegener said quickly. Just agreeing and going to the island would be less problematic than sitting here arguing an argument that he would lose anyway. He had learned that a while back.

Norway glanced at Sweden, and then his two little brothers anxiously.

"Iceland...I thought you knew but we think-" his sentence drifted off into nothingness quickly.

"You think what?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. He knew that tone.

"We think," Finland said gently, stepping in, "that it's time for Wegener to go to his island with his people."

"And?" Iceland didn't see where they were going with this. Did they not just agree to do just that?"

"Permanently," Finland finished.

_That_ snapped Wegener out of his near-coma, not to mention put Iceland _in_ one.

"_What!?"_ THIS wasn't what they all agreed on convincing Wegener of (and had come an awfully long way to do). "He's only _eight! Are you _insane?"

"An eight year old _nation_ Iceland," Norway interjected.

"Besides Wegener, you strike me more as looking like a nine year old to me," Denmark said in a weak attempt at humor that fell flat at the end.

"But-"

"He needs to be with his people."

"All nations grow up something like this."

"He'll be perfectly fine."

Wegener ground his teeth together in frustration. Did anyone care what _he_ thought?

"No. You cannot do this to him," Iceland went on. "Don't worry Wegener," he said in a lower tone so that only Wegener could here.  
This went on for a while, but In the end, Wegener bent to the pressure of the other Nordics. All it took was one word: 'okay,' which he didn't really mean, to seal the deal.

* * *

They were on a boat headed for Wegener's island before lunch, having already taken a flight to Iceland. Wegener sat by Iceland on the way there by the boat's railing. The wind whipped his blond hair around, stinging his ears and eyes occasionally. This was what he wanted. He wanted to grow up and be big and drink coffee and have his own citizens and go to meetings. And now he would do all of that. Well, maybe not the coffee, but everything else. But… he didn't want it now. Well that wasn't true, he _did,_ he was _sooo_ excited about that part, but all that excitement was smothered by...by dread. He didn't want to grow up to drink coffee and go to meetings; he wanted to grow up to drink coffee with Iceland and go to meetings with _Iceland._

"Are you sure about this?" Iceland asked for the hundredth time.

"_Yes _Iceland." He couldn't go back now.

The six of them later got off the boat and walked around, meeting the new citizens and trying to get Wegener acquainted with them. Not that they needed to, Wegener already felt like he knew every one of them, which was _weird_ to say the least. The people, _his _people, had come from all over the world to explore the new island. They were excited. They were scared. They were curious about the island and their new neighbors and anxious about starting over somewhere.

Just like him.

Everyone went to Wegener's house (his _house, _how crazy was _that?)_ pretty early. Wegener had not up for much that afternoon, and ended up just watching a British horror movie while everyone else went to sleep. He could faintly hear the other nations talking a few rooms away.

"Iceland," Norway said.

"I don't want to talk to you."

"Iceland?" came Finland's voce.

"Or you."

"You had to know this was coming."

"How about a _warning _next time."

"Ice-"

"You knew-" Iceland said, cutting Denmark off and narrowing his eyes at Norway. "You knew I've been worrying about this since before he could even talk, and then you go and-"

"Iceland he's not a little kid anymore, you had to know-"

"Get. Out." Wegener turned the volume of the movie up. Iceland almost never used that tone with anyone, and when he did- watch out. He didn't want to witness what happened next.

He didn't make it through the movie (particularly the part where the ghosts and zombies were _defeated)_ and ended up fast asleep on the couch in front of the television. Four hours later, he woke with a start, not recognizing where he was for a moment before all the memories came rushing back to him. He sighed and closed his eyes again, too tired to go to his room. Where _was_ his room anyway? Just when he was starting to fall asleep again, he heard a clink and bolted up. It was a ghost! If that movie had proven anything, it was that what he just heard was a ghost...or maybe just the two chains on the ceiling fan clinking into each other. _Clink. _Wegener had been _watching_ the ceiling fan that time, and that wasn't the noise. He jumped up off the couch, making the cold floor creak and send a chill up his spine.

_Ghost! Zombie! _Who _cared, _his feet carried him down the hall to where he had heard Iceland talking earlier in a fraction of a second.

"Iceland," he called, bursting through the door. But the only person in the room was Norway.

"Wegener?" he whispered groggily, sitting up. Wrong room.

"Sorry," Wegener muttered hastily, cracking open the next door and running in upon seeing silver hair spread out over the pillow.

"Iceland!" He ran over and shook his caretakers shoulder. Iceland groaned and turned over on his other side, still asleep. "Iceland!" he tried again, running over to his other side.

"Hmph." Iceland pulled the covers up over his head, only half-awake now. Wegener reached over to the table beside him, and turned the lamp on, shining it right in Iceland's face.

"Get. Up."

"Alright, alright, geez kid, I'm up." He looked over to where Wegener stood, still fully dressed in his clothes from the previous day. His eyes scanned his for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

"I told you not to watch that movie."

"Can I stay in here tonight?" He checked over his shoulder.

"Sure," Iceland said smiling. Wegener climbed into his arms.

"When are you leaving?"

Iceland was taken aback. "Whenever you want me to I guess."

"I _never_ want you to leave though."

Iceland's chest shook as he laughed quietly. "Maybe not _that_ long." Wegener sighed and sunk into the pillows, completely exhausted.

Maybe Wegener did still need him.

Just then there was a tap on the door and Norway stepped in.

"He okay?"

"Yeah," Iceland said quietly while patting his hair. "Asleep now." Wegener tried not to laugh as his trick worked. They thought he was asleep. He wanted to wait until Iceland was half asleep and then jump up shouting BOO at the top of his lungs, like the ghosts in the movie. But then they started talking, and he focused on evening out his breaths so that he could listen.

"Are you okay?"

Iceland glared at his older brother for an uncomfortable amount of time before sneering "sure."

"Icey-" Norway paused, shuddering upon realizing that he just used Denmark's nickname. "Ice_land, _we really weren't trying to throw all of this upon either of you. I- we all just assumed that he would move here once he actually got his own people."

There was another uncomfortable silence. "And you never thought to mention this?"

"I'm truly sorry Iceland. It didn't occur to us."

Iceland sighed, he still didn't see why it was supposed to be so obvious that Wegener should live here as of today, just as Norway couldn't see why it _wasn't _obvious to his brother. " 'S okay I guess"

"Is it?" Norway questioned.

"What do you mean?"

"Is he going to be okay here?" Iceland frowned and looked over at the sleeping (or so he thought) form of Wegener. They both were thinking the same thing. Pretty soon there would be nobody there for him to run to when he got scared…  
"If he really can't handle being here, I don't think any of us can force him…" Norway said, frowning.

"As long as he's okay, I'm okay."

"I'm okay," Wegener said, sitting up suddenly, making Iceland jump.

"Sorry; thought you were asleep." It was plain as day that Wegener was anything but okay. His eyebrows were pulled together ever so slightly, making a little crease in-between them, and his eyes shone with a thin layer of tears.

"I'll let you two talk," Norway said, nodding sympathetically before leaving.

"Sorry for snapping at you earlier," Iceland whispered before the door closed, earning another nod and if he saw correctly, ghost of a smile before the door closed. He would have to apologize to the others in the morning as well.

"Are you sure you're okay? You can come back if you're not." Iceland turned to find Wegener with his eyes closed, a bit too tight, lying motionless on the bed. "Nice try. I know you're awake. You're not avoiding this conversation."

Wegener grumbled and sat up. "I said I was okay."

"Well you don't look it."

Wegener looked away, trying to blink the moisture out of his eyes without Iceland noticing. The truth was, he _didn't _want to be on his own quite yet. He didn't really understand it; all he had been wishing for lately was to be all grown up and a real nation like the others, but now that he actually was really starting to get his wish, he wasn't ready for it. He was scared and unsure and somewhat awestruck, yet anxious.

But so were his people. This place was new to them too. Finland had told him a while back that nations exist for their people. He would be with them from day one, always by their side, never missing a thing.

"I'm going to stay," he said with so much conviction that not even Iceland could protest.

"Okay," Iceland said, in slight disbelief, right before being smothered by one of Wegener's hugs.

"We can still visit each other though, right?"

"Of course."

* * *

Once Wegener was sound asleep (for real) Iceland went to get a glass of water. He wasn't really thirsty, he just needed to walk around for a bit. As soon as he stepped out of the room though, he saw Norway leaning against the wall next to the door.

"Gah!" Iceland jumped. "You're going to give me a heart attack one of these days." Norway chuckled softly, his thin white smile standing out against the dark. "Were you eavesdropping?"

"Maybe." Norway left it at that.

"Why are you even still up?"

"You said you were okay," he replied simply.

"Yeah, and?"

"I've already told you: you're a terrible liar."

"I'll be fine."

"Undoubtedly."

Iceland stopped walking and looked at Norway. "I fail to see what your point is."

"Alright, it's just that-" Norway paused, fighting the urge to just pat his younger brother on the shoulder and go back to bed. He had never been very good with the emotional stuff with Iceland, who had taken after him. "I know that you're missing how things used to be with Wegener, and you're right, you'll never get those days back."

"...Are you trying to help?"

"Yes," Norway narrowed his eyes at Iceland. "As I was saying, you'll never get those days back, but...how do I put this," he mumbled. Iceland raised an eyebrow. "Look. He had just started talking at one point, and you loved it. And then, when he started talking clearly you were a little upset because he was growing up. But then you got to help him start walking, and you loved that. You may be saying goodbye to this past era, but you're saying hello to the next one as well."

Norway had remarked on more than one occasion that Iceland had started talking to him more lately...but so had Norway. This might be the most Norway had ever said at once...ever.

"Oh...um, thanks Norway." Norway simply nodded and went back to his room. Iceland went back to his room as well without the glass of water, and simply sat on the bed, staring up at the ceiling while patting Wegener's hair. He was so proud of him and his decision. He couldn't wait to see what the next so-called 'era' would bring...but he sure would miss this one.

**Well there you go...I'll try to end on a happier note in the future. I won't take so long to put chapter 10 up, sorry again. Unfortunately, I'll probably be bringing this story to a close within the next few chapters. :( And of course, thank you to all who read, favorited, followed and reviewed. Special thanks to Transformers' BABY, Miss Akiyata, PianoKeys4, and an unnamed guest (you know who you are :)) Due to a bit of confusion, I'd like to clear things up and say that Wegener is NOT Surtsey. Constructive criticism (did any part of this seem a bit rushed to you?) and reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks!**


	10. Tag

**Hey 'yall! :)**

**First and foremost, thank you all for all of the continued support with this ; it means so much!**

**I'll probably bring this story to a close within the next couple of chapters, so if you want to suggest a chapter, let me know now. :)  
Also, one of the main reasons I write on here is so that I can improve my writing, so please don't hesitate to offer constructive criticism. :)**

**And, without further ado: chapter 10.  
Eh, almost forgot: I believe I am required to say that none of the characters but Wegener belong to me (although feel free to use Wegener in your own stories if you really want to- just give me a heads up first :) )**

Wegener leaned over the hot stove to reach the knob that would turn on the oven so that he could cook dinner. His mouth started watering; he could practically taste the shrimp already. Shrimp was, without a doubt, his favorite food. Below his arm, the swirled metal of the burner glowed cherry-red, warping the air in front of it. From where he stood though, the heat of the burner merely mimicked that of a very warm day.

"Gah!" Iceland watched, shocked, from the kitchen table.

"What?" Wegener asked, turning around and almost falling onto the stove after losing his balance on the chair he was standing on.

"Wegener, I don't know who's going to die first: you from stuff like this, or me from a heart attack watching it."

Wegener smiled. "Nor says you worry too much about me.

"Yeah, well he also says you need to play and be a kid more."

"Uncle Denmark says that you couldn't stand being a kid either."

"Oh yeah? Well-" Iceland paused, unsure of how to finish that sentence. "well that was long time ago."

"Not according to Uncle Denmark. He says it's still like that." Wegener smiled knowingly.

"You know what?" Iceland stood up from the table and switched off the oven. It was pretty early for dinner anyway and they ate not too far back. To anyone who didn't know him, this action would come across as angry. They were taking care of this now. "Not it!" he suddenly shouted.

"What?" Wegener looked over to where he heard Iceland talking, ready to give him the 'you've finally gone crazy' look, only to find that he was already gone: running out the front door. It took Wegener quite a bit longer than he'd like to admit to realize that he was it in a game of tag, and that his prey was escaping fast.

"Hey!" Wegener scrambled off the chair and chased after Iceland without even bothering to put any shoes on. "Not fair! You got a head start." Iceland was barely within earshot now, and kept running, laughing all the while.

The ground under wegener's feet was soft in rich soil. Though it had been a while since his island's appearance, the soil still had a flaky-fluffy quality from the ash that it used to be. The grass to, was soft, though not yet lush. It was excellent farmland. Somehow, weeds were having trouble making an appearance on the island, leaving the little grass-sprouts to take root and spread.

Wegener was panting heavily by the time Iceland had wound through all of the shops and small houses and led them both down to the beach.

The beach, like the rest of the island, was bordered by rich soil, and tall grass grew right up to the high tide-line, where it gave way to a rockier mix of stones, mainly pumice. It wasn't uncommon for the crests of waves to be dotted with chunks of the rock either, making swimming along the coast a bit of a hazard.

Iceland realized that Wegener, with his shorter legs, would never catch up to him, and slowed down, feigning exhaustion.

Wegener ran on ahead, feet splashing against the frigid North Atlantic ocean whenever the waves came up far enough to lap at his feet. When Wegener got close enough, Iceland spun around laughing, kicking water up in the air playfully so that Wegener got splattered with it.

"Hey!" he shouted, grinning deviously.

Iceland laughed again. "So are you going to catch me or n-"

His sentence was cut off abruptly as Wegener unexpectedly slammed into him, tackling his older brother to the ground. Iceland lied on the beach for the moment, little stones digging into the back of his head uncomfortably, not to mention dazed and with the wind knocked out of him.

"Wow; you're a lot stronger than last time I was here."

Wegener smiled. "You're it." He knew that he should probably run now, but instead, they both lay a few feet apart on the rocky pumice beach, catching their breath.

"That was fun," Wegener panted.

"Yeah." Iceland's typical introversive attitude was slowly returning.

Wegener wasn't sure if their game of tag was over yet or not, but either way, he felt so...content right then. On his island, with the sun turning the sky all sorts of fiery colors, with his big brother visiting. He didn't want to get up.

Of course, a frigid wave had to suddenly come up farther than it was supposed to at this time in the afternoon, ruining the peaceful atmosphere. Wegener sat up, coughing on the water he just inhaled and rubbing the salt out of his eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Wegener felt Iceland's hand patting his back, a bit harder than necessary.

"Yeah," Wegener croaked, coughing one more time. He was more stunned than anything.

Iceland and Wegener were both soaked by this point, with their hair plastered to the sides of their faces and clothes sticking to them.

"Come on," Iceland said, helping Wegener up. "Let's get you back to your house. You'll get sick out here." The term 'your house' still felt wrong in his mouth.

"Worry-wart," Wegener teased, not trying to cause any real offense. Still, he _wa_s shivering. Wegener's island wasn't a warm place most of the time.

"Hmph."

Suddenly, Wegener shot forward, racing full speed ahead.

"What are you doing!?" Iceland shouted.

Several seconds later, a reply was yelled in the distance "You're it now, remember?"

"Never grow up, Wegener," Iceland muttered to himself, before breaking into a sprint. He had a race to win.

**Hope you liked this chapter :) I wasn't actually planning on writing this one, but I wanted to update with something while I'm working on some other things, so I whipped this up really quickly. All of the views, favorites, follows, and reviews mean the world. Thank you so much! Special thanks to Transformers' BABY and Miss Akiyata for their reviews on chapter 9! :) **


	11. Rules

**Chapter 11: Hope you enjoy :) As usual, Wegener is the only character belonging to me.**

Christmas time.

It was the one time when most everyone was truly happy. Finland couldn't even see his own lawn anymore what with all of the christmas lights and decorations. That, and the fact that he was over one thousand kilometers away from his home, at another world meeting.

Iceland couldn't remember ever having to go to a meeting on Christmas. Close to it, sure, but he couldn't recall one ever falling _on _christmas. Nevertheless, something had happened with fossil fuel supply that required the whole world's attention and he found himself in a hotel in Amsterdam with a thirteen year old looking up at him pathetically.

Wegener must not have gotten the idea when Iceland said 'never grow up'.

"_Please!?" _Wegener whined.

"No, and that's final. Am I understood?"

Wegener grimaced. He had already lost the argument, and he knew it. Still, he couldn't imagine giving in to the fact that he couldn't go to the meeting _yet again._

"Come _on _Iceland! I'm a _teenager _now. I'm old enough to go." Iceland frowned. He didn't know what bothered him more: the fact that Wegener was a _teenager, _or the fact that he himself _wasn't _one anymore.

"No Wegener. You'd be in big trouble right now if weren't Christmas, but if you insist on it, I can still ground you."

Wegener looked down at his shoes and Iceland's eyes softened a bit. "Look," Iceland put a hand on Wegener's shoulder. He was still significantly shorter, but still tall for his age. "Everyone got you all of this nice stuff for Christmas. I won't be gone long. Surely everything you got can keep you busy."

"Yeah," Wegener muttered.

Iceland jumped up to hurriedly put his coat on and leave for the meeting while to two them were on a somewhat good note. He wasn't fast enough though.

"When _can _I go?" came the teen's voice from behind him.

Iceland sighed. It was the same conversation at every meeting. "Only independent countries can go. I'm sorry; I didn't make the rules, but I do have to follow them." And with a smile that came out more like a grimace, Iceland left for the meeting.

Wegener let out a breath slowly. Why did he even bother coming again? It wasn't being alone that bothered him. That he had learned to deal with quite a while back, being on a pretty isolated island. It was the whole 'having no voice' thing that really got to him. Iceland listened to him, sure. He treated him like an adult and took his ideas seriously. Years back, before people were living on his island, Wegener had gone through a phase where he argued about _everything _with Iceland_, _but that was long past. The only trouble they had now was with world meetings. He felt a bit guilty about pushing the meeting issue again, after all, Iceland was just listening to the rules after all. It was just a meeting.

Wegener went over to where his christmas presents were. He had gotten something from each of Nordics as well as many of the other nations, like Canada, Italy, America, England and Russia.

Sure, some nations had been interested in the farmland on Wegener's island at first (actually, many some still were), but nothing had ever come of it. The other nations all seemed to respect him, even if they didn't get any farmland in return.

Wegener put the computer game he got from America down.

No. It wasn't just a meeting. It was a chance to be heard by the world. Iceland listened to him, and he couldn't be more grateful for that, but the meetings were the only places where you could talk with every nation and share your ideas and try to improve the world while being taken seriously. He needed to go to the meetings.

And if independence was what it took...so be it.

**Sorry that was so short. I've had a lot of other stuff to work on lately but wanted to type this up really quickly so that you all didn't have to wait so long for an update. There will probably be about two more chapters after this, although if you want me to write a little more about when Wegener was younger, just let me know what you want me to write about. **_**Let me know how you think Iceland and the Nordics should react in the next chapter, or if I should just skip over that part.**_**Thank you so much to all who have read, reviewed, followed, and favorited. Special thanks to last chapters reviews from Fruitstogether, lilwarrior11, Miss Akiyata, and Transformers' BABY. If you see something that needs to be fixed, please let me know :) **


	12. Independent

**Alright, so it's really not fair to leave everyone hanging off a cliff like that, so here's chapter 12. As usual, the only character belonging to me is Wegener. Enjoy! :)**

Iceland stared. "You want _what_ now?"

"I want," Wegener said, taking a deep breath, although his face remained rather composed, "I want to be independent."

"No," Iceland immediately said, shaking his head and making his hair fall unevenly across his forehead. Where on earth had this come from? "Just… no."

"Why?" Wegener asked, a growl of some sort building in the back of his throat, although that was more so nerves than anything.

"Why? _Why?" _ Iceland stopped his pacing to stare at the teen, pretty angry at this point. "_You _tell _me_ one good reason why you should be independent."

"I want to be able to go to the meetings."

"_Meetings! _You've got to be kidding me! Meetings are boring and uncooperative and-"

"And important," Wegener finished, a new light flashing behind his eyes. He took another deep breath to steady his nerves and spoke on. "The world has it's problems, and it always will. But I could fix some of them if I only could explain some of my ideas and-"

"And what about _me!? I _listen to your ideas, _I _share them at the meetings. What makes you think it would be any different if you were the one telling them?"

"I don't. But I won't know unless I actually go?" Wegener said.

"And what if you did? What if I found some way to let you go? Would you be happy then?"

Wegener didn't blink, didn't even look away from Iceland's glare. "I highly doubt I would be taken seriously if I wasn't a real country."

Iceland stared, trying to come up with a counterargument, but couldn't find one. Wegener was right.

"Iceland? Will you let me be independen-" he didn't even get out the last word before hearing the door slam and realizing that Iceland was no longer in the room.

"Do you mind?" Norway asked grouchily, coming out of his hotel room a few doors down. It may not be late enough for most people to sleep yet, but that didn't mean he wanted to hear a ton of doors slamming while he tried to read either. He immediately lost his train of thought when he saw the expression on Iceland's face though.

"What happened?" he asked lightly, falling into step behind his younger brother as he walked briskly down the hall, going nowhere in particular.

"Wegener wants to be independent," Iceland growled, stopping abruptly at the end of the hallway: a window overlooking Amsterdam.

"I'm not surprised," Norway said after a long pause.

Iceland raised his eyebrows, but otherwise ignored the comment.

"How do I convince him to stay?" he asked, looking down at the city several floors below him without really seeing it.

Norway leaned against the window, deep in thought, although you would never be able to tell just by looking at him.

"Maybe you don't."

Iceland turned to him, eyes wide with anger or shock or some mixture of the two. "Excuse me?"

"If you let him go now, you two could still be on good terms. If not, you may have to fight him and could win, but hardly be considered friends let alone family. And if you lose, then you would lose all ties with him."

"I wouldn't lose," Iceland muttered, his resolve building.

Norway just stared at him, expression unreadable. "Not unless other countries stepped in to support his cause."

"What are you trying to say?" Iceland stepped back. "_You _wouldn't support that, would you?

Norway shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know yet."

Iceland spun around ready to walk back to his room, seething. Norway's arm shot out and stopped him.

"Let me talk to him?"

Iceland looked at his brother, glowering almost, but it was clear that Norway wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Fine."

* * *

Somehow, Denmark ended up going with Norway. They found themselves sitting the armchairs with the horrible patterns that nobody would buy for their own homes, but always seemed to end up in hotels. The three of them arranged them into a sort of broken triangle and sat down.

"I'm assuming you know why we're here, Wegener," Norway said calmly, resting his chin on his hands."

"Yes," Wegener nodded. They were probably here to convince him to remain a part of Iceland.

"So can you tell us _why_ you want to be independent."

And so Wegener told them everything about the meetings. All things that they already knew, of course.

And in turn, Denmark and Norway walked him through what being an independent country would be like. There was trade, government, more economic responsibility, defense, and so on. Independence didn't just mean getting to go to meetings.

But Wegener insisted he was ready for it all.

"I still don't know," Denmark said after their good hour long conversation.

"The point of raising a kid is to prepare another person to make their own way in life. I'm prepared, but I'm not able to make my own way through life like this."

Denmark and Norway exchanged glances at these words, partly amazed that a thirteen year old was able to come up with that point. If it came down to supporting either Iceland or Wegener, they knew whose side they needed to choose. Norway had considered staying neutral for a while now, but knew now that this wasn't something he could stay out of.

* * *

Iceland paced restlessly in the hallway, listening to the stories Finland and occasionally Sweden told of times when countries became independent without difficulty or any grudges held, but he couldn't really remember any of them after a few minutes. He was fairly sure that they would be on his side if he needed to fight to keep Wegener.

Finally, Norway and Denmark stepped out of the room, Wegener standing behind them.

"Iceland," Denmark said, not smiling for the first time in what seemed like forever. "If you decide to fight to keep Wegener, I'm afraid we'll have to defend him."

Iceland glared at the three nations across from him, only hearing his own breathing behind his ears. He remembered Norway's words from not too long ago. Was it really worth it? Was it worth it to go against three of his best friends, two of which were his own brothers?

He turned his gaze towards Wegener. "You want to be Independent? Fine," he spit. "Merry Christmas. But don't ask me for any help anymore." And with that, he turned and walked away, leaving 5 stunned Nordics behind him.

So Norway was right is one aspect: fighting to keep Wegener wasn't worth the cost.

But he was wrong in another aspect: he and Wegener wouldn't be on good terms. Iceland was upset with Wegener for turning his back on him like that, while Wegener grew cold towards him when he realized that Iceland wouldn't respect the situation or let it go. They wouldn't speak to each other for many years.

**Before you say anything, no, this is NOT the ending! Trust me, I'm not going to leave the story like this. In fact, I'll probably have the next (and last :'( ) chapter up in a couple of hours. If not, then definitely by tomorrow night. Thank you to everyone who read, favorited, reviewed, and followed. Special thanks to chapter 11's reviewers: Transformers' BABY, Shattered. Yin-Yang, major-fan-girl-in-here17, and one guest. Any feedback would be very much appreciated. **


	13. Chapter 13

**Alright. As promised, here is the next chapter.**

**And of course, I must say that the only character that is mine is Wegener.**

**Without further ado, chapter 13!**

Wegener walked into the meeting room and abruptly sat down in his chair. They were in Japan this time. By now he had been to plenty of meetings and understood what Iceland meant when he said that the meetings were often organized and didn't accomplish much. Nevertheless, he was glad that he was able to go to them. He actually had managed to accomplish a lot. He proposed a project that was accepted and eventually produced a sustainable replacement for fossil fuels. The rise of global temperature even slowed down as a result!

Norway sat two seats away from Wegener, trying to get his papers in order before the meeting started. He and Iceland, unlike Iceland and Wegener, were still on speaking terms. Still, nothing had ever been the quite same as those few golden years when Wegener had just been a kid. Norway didn't think anyone else noticed, but he had caught Iceland smiling down at the tabletop when Wegener made some sort of discovery or had a new idea at the meetings on multiple occasions, always trying to hide his expression by brushing his hair in front of his face. He would never admit it, after all, he'd reverted back to his untalkative self after Wegener left, but Iceland was proud of the little guy… although Norway would hardly consider 17 little.

Norway was pulled away from his thoughts by Iceland sitting down in his chair between him and Wegener. Nobody had ever told them that their seats were assigned, but it seemed to be some sort of unspoken law. Iceland sat between Norway and Wegener. Norway sat next to Denmark, who sat across from Sweden and Finland. Iceland didn't say anything, he simply sat down, pulled out his laptop, and started organizing his notes. He stopped abruptly then and looked to the right, where Wegener had pressed his forehead against the cool table, breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?" They were the first words spoken to Wegener in a long _long _while.

Wegener just nodded and focused on breathing. He felt like absolute crap today: hot, sweaty, chills, nausea, dizziness, vision sparkling, ears ringing, headache, _everything_. He jumped when he felt a hand brush under his bangs and press against his forehead.

"Come on," Iceland said, standing up.

"What?" Wegener groaned groggily.

"We're going home."

"Home is almost 9,000 kilometers away."

"Hotel then, you know what I mean."

"No. Need to stay-" the rest of what Wegner wanted wanted to stay was lost in a string of coughing."

"You're sick. Come on." He pulled out Wegener's chair and gathered up his papers for him. Surely one of the Nordics would let them copy their notes later.

Wegener groaned and gave up. Honestly, going back and laying down was starting to look pretty good right about now.

He stood up, stumbling slightly. The room seemed to rotate from left to right slightly. Iceland put his hand on his shoulder to steady him and guided him out.

Behind him, the nordics all glanced at each other with almost suppressed smiles, even Sweden, who watched them make their way towards the door. Things would start to get better.

Once in the car, Wegener leaned against the window and closed his eyes.

"Volcanoes?" Iceland asked. There had been quite a bit of volcanic activity in the past few weeks. He didn't know that it was close enough to effect Wegener, or that it was that bad, especially since he felt no effects himself.

Wegener nodded, unsure of what to say after that, although he was feeling a bit too sick to put much more thought into it. Before he knew it, he was laying down in bed (although he could barely recall walking out of the car), while Iceland placed a cool washcloth on his forehead. It felt like heaven. What was this supposed to mean though? Did Iceland forgive him? Could things go back to normal now?

"You didn't have to do that you know," Wegener finally said, already feeling the effects of a restless sleep take over.

"Well sure I did. You're my little brother."

Wegener blinked his eyes open, sitting up a little.

"What?"

Iceland watched Wegener for a moment, whose face was an unhealthy pale color and eyes shining with that enthusiasm he'd come to know so well at the meetings lately even though the rest of his face displayed none of it.

"I said you're my little brother." He pulled a chair over and sat down, running a hand through his hair. "Listen Wegener, I know I haven't been very nice these past few years. I'm _so _sorry, and I'm so proud of everything you've accomplished. If-"

Iceland was cut short as he was pulled into a bear-hug. "I rushed into the whole independence thing too. It's okay!"

Wegener sniffed, though Iceland couldn't tell if it was to keep from crying or because he was sick.

It was then that Iceland realized that despite everything, Wegener was still 17. Still just a kid. And worst of all, he had to set up a government all on his own, after Iceland said he wouldn't help.

"No. It's really not okay. You were left to go start a _country _and I abandoned you!"

"Don't worry about it. My country is doing fine. Government running smoothly, good export of fish and crops, no trouble from foreign countries. Everything is going well."

Iceland smiled. "Good job, kid. Still. There has to be something I can do."

"Just promise we'll all be a family again."

"Deal."

Wegener smiled and finally drifted off into a light asleep, face first in the pillow.

They would be a family again: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Wegner. The Nordic six.

**And there you have it! This will finish off my first multi-chapter fic. I'll be moving this over to the complete category now :'( However, I can't say I won't come back and add an epilogue at some point. I have a few ideas for continuing this story. If you have any requests for an epilogue, or a chapter you want me to put in between some others, or want to use Wegener in a story yourself, just let me know! :) Once again, nothing in this story was meant to depict the actual countries, just the characters in the anime. I know I've been saying this for thirteen chapters now, but thank you honestly to everyone who read, reviewed, favorited, and followed this story! Also, thank you to Transformers' BABY, Rosemary1234, and Rylee Wyatt for the feedback on chapter 12! Special thanks to Miss Akiyate, Transformers' BABY, and PianoKeys4 for leaving feedback on so many chapters since the beginning! I'll be writing more soon :) Thanks again!**


End file.
